UTICA - Kevin Stolarcyk, the first of four men charged in the beating death of a Rome man last Summer, was sentenced in Oneida County Court Friday.

A jury originally found Stolarcyk not-guilty of manslaughter charges and were deadlocked on a gang assault charge. Stolarcyk then agreed to a plea of misdemeanor assault. For that, Judge Michael Dwyer sentenced him to one year in prison. With time served he will be out of jail next week.

"I wish Carl was home; I wish he was with us," said Jessica Hernandez, Hill's girlfriend. "I wish he wasn't where he is now."

Many lives were shattered - changed forever the night of August 12, when rivalry between young men from Westmoreland and Rome spun out of control, taking the life of 20-year old Carl Hill.

And for at least one of those left behind - the girlfriend and mother of Carl Hill's children - making sense out of all of this is not an easy thing.

"There is no reason for my children to be without their father," she said.

Hernandez did not give an impact statement; no need really, as Stolarcyk's sentence stemmed from a plea deal. But there is something she would have liked to say.

"I would let him know how much he took from us," she said. "How much he took from our children and what he did was wrong."

In a brief statement, Stolarcyk apologized to the court and his mother...but absent from his apology was Hernandez, now living without her long-time partner. But she says any remorse, any apology is simply too late.

"Now they want to regret and go home and be with their family, that is never going to happen for Carl," she said.

But both Stolarcyk and Hernandez agreed on this main point:

"Everybody had a choice at that party," Stolarcyk said. "And nobody made the right decisions."

"If they just said "Stop. Wait. This is wrong," one of them would have stepped up and said anything he still would have been alive right now," Hernandez said.

Now three men - Brad Stanistreet, Cory Adam and John Almanza, are awaiting their sentences, which are expected to be much more severe than the one year that Kevin Stolarcyk received.