By WILLIAM KATES
Associated Press

SYRACUSE - A man convicted of drunken driving for the fourth time since he caused a 1981 crash that killed four people was sentenced Wednesday to from 11/3 to four years in state prison.

Robert Madison told Onondaga County Judge Hon. Joseph Fahey that he had found God in recovery and wanted one more chance, but Fahey ignored his plea and imposed the maximum sentence that he could.

"Forewarned is forearmed. If you get convicted of drunk driving again, I'm going to send you to prison for the rest of your life," said Fahey, who disregarded a county probation department report that recommended a six-month sentence at a shock camp.

Madison, 46, of Onondaga, was pulled over for driving without his headlights at 1 a.m. April 9. A jury found him guilty of driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.13 percent, above the legal limit of 0.08 percent. He admitted to police that he had had 10 to 12 beers.

Madison has a misdemeanor DWI conviction from 1985 and felony DWI convictions from 1992 and 1997.

In 1981, Madison - then 19 - caused a head-on crash when he drove across the center line on a two-lane state highway and hit an oncoming car. Killed in the accident were John McLaughlin, 62, of DeWitt; Martha McMahon, 55, of Syracuse; and Demetrio Ascioti, 65, and his wife, Evelyn Ascioti, 49, both of Onondaga.

Even though he had been out drinking, Madison was not charged with DWI. The crash was blamed on narcolepsy, a sleep disorder.

"Clearly, alcohol was a factor in the accident," Fahey said. "I don't see the change. I see a consistency that already had lethal consequences."

Madison pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide charges in the fatal crash and was sentenced to probation.

Madison tried to read his mercy plea in court, but was quickly overwhelmed by emotion and had to hand it off to his defense attorney, James Chatwin, to finish. In his statement, Madison said the tragedy caused his drinking problems, but that he is now in recovery and a "dramatically changed man."

Chatwin also asked Fahey for leniency, noting that Madison had gone nearly 10 years since his last DWI conviction.