AUGUSTA — A state motor vehicles examiner has denied a request for license reinstatement by a former Skowhegan man convicted in a drunken driver crash in 1996 that killed three people and severely injured two others.

Bryan Carrier, 39, of Fairfield, had sought to get back the right to drive, which was suspended for life when he was sentenced in 1997.

During a hearing Sept. 26, friends and family members of Arlyce Jewell, 42, her 10-year-old son, Alex, and Elbert Knowles, 15, who all died in the crash, appealed to hearings examiner Benjamin Tucker to keep Carrier off the road as the sentencing judge had directed — for life.

Tucker, calling the crash “criminal homicide,” agreed in a written decision, noting that Carrier had not made any “meaningful attempt to console or apologize directly for (the) immense pain and grief”until the September reinstatement hearing.

Tucker also writes in his decision that Facebook messages by Carrier in 2015 “indicate a level of callousness about their impact on family members.”

Carrrier’s lawyer, Walt McKee of Augusta, said Tuesday that his client “is obviously disappointed.”

“He showed that he was no public safety risk and that he needs a license,” McKee said. “We certainly respect the opinion of the families of the victims, but at the end of the day by all standards Bryan should have been allowed to have his license back. We will take a long hard look at the decision and decide whether to appeal in the next week.”

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