Wilton man who hit Skidmore student guilty of vehicular manslaughter

Thomas Gorman, the Wilton man who struck and killed a Skidmore College student and injured two others while driving drunk last Halloween night, pleaded guilty Monday to vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault charges.

Under a plea agreement entered before Saratoga County Court Judge James A. Murphy III, Gorman could receive up to 15 years in state prison.

He will be sentenced to somewhere in a range between 4 to 12 years in state prison and 5 to 15 years in state prison on the most serious charge, first-degree vehicular manslaughter. The judge will make the final sentencing decision.

Gorman will also receive a simultaneous sentence of 2 to 6 years on the first-degree vehicular assault charge. Sentencing on both charges is scheduled for March 21.

Gorman’s driver’s license is also revoked. When he gets out of prison, if his license is restored, he will have to use an ignition interlock system on any vehicle he owns or operates for three years.

Gorman, 65, of Birch Meadows Estates, Wilton, hit the three students on rural Clinton Street, about a half-mile north of the Skidmore campus, at about 11:15 p.m. on Halloween.

Police said he admitted he had been drinking before the incident, which occurred as a large number of students were walking in the road because of a large off-campus Halloween party.

Skidmore freshman Michael Hedges, 19, of Lenox, Massachusetts, died from his injuries early the next morning.

The two other students — freshmen Toby Freeman, 19, of New York City, and Oban Galbraith, 18, of Shelburne, Vermont — were injured but are recovering.

The incident prompted a memorial vigil and outpourings of grief on the Saratoga Springs campus in the days immediately afterward, as well as a reiteration of college off-campus safety policies.

Gorman, who was once an employee of the college’s dining services, has been in jail since his arrest on Halloween night.

“These cases are difficult to prosecute because the reality is that no sentence will bring Michael Hedges back to his family,” said Assistant District Attorney Patrick J. Campion, who prosecuted the case. “Hopefully in the end, all of the victims while find some measure of justice with the defendant’s admission of guilty today in court.”

Campion said the District Attorney’s Office has been in regular contact with the victims and their families.

Police said Gorman was operating a 2009 black Kia Optima southbound on Clinton Street, which is a straightaway, when he crossed onto the gravel portion of the right shoulder where the three students were walking.

Heggen said Gorman narrowly missed a fourth student, who was grazed by the vehicle but saw his friends struck.

Gorman’s blood-alcohol count at the time was 0.20, or more than twice the level needed legally to establish intoxication.

Gorman told sheriff’s deputies that night that he was attempting to manuever his vehicle around groups of people in the road. The next thing he knew, his statement reads, he heard an impact and his windshield shattered.

“I stopped and I heard a bunch of people start yelling,” Gorman’s statement reads. “I’m just sorry that it happened. It wasn’t intentional.”

Still, his decision to drive after drinking that night “was a callous and wanton disregard for the safety of others, and caused the death of a talented young man and severely injured two others,” District Attorney Karen A. Heggen said on Monday.

Reach Gazette reporter Stephen Williams at 395-3086, [email protected] or @gazettesteve on Twitter.