GREENFIELD — A Vermont man awaits sentencing after a jury on Wednesday afternoon found him guilty on seven charges related to a Route 2 crash in Greenfield that severely injured a Rhode Island family in 2023.

Javery Hattat, 33, was convicted in Franklin County Superior Court on two counts of negligent operation of a motor vehicle, four counts of reckless assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and one count of possession of a Class B substance (cocaine) following a week-long trial.

Hattat was behind the wheel of a Toyota Tacoma on March 12, 2023, when he swerved into the oncoming lane of traffic near Longview Tower on Route 2 in Greenfield, slamming into a Nissan Armada carrying four members of the Sojkowski family and sending them to the hospital. When questioned by police at Baystate Franklin Medical Center following the crash, Hattat told officers he fell asleep after being up all night ingesting cocaine, but that he had stopped so as to not drive impaired. He also admitted to smoking marijuana about an hour before his drive to “stay awake” and to having a prescription for Suboxone.

The Sojkowski family was returning home to Westerly, Rhode Island, from a Berkshire East Mountain Resort ski trip in Charlemont when they were struck. Parents Steve and Stephanie Sojkowski suffered various severe, life-altering injuries, including a broken nose, femur, knee cap, ribs, pelvis and sacrum, while their 12-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter received comparatively less significant injuries.

Defense attorney R. David DeHerdt argued during the trial that the crash was caused by Hattat — who had no cocaine or marijuana in his system when his blood was drawn at the hospital — having a seizure, possibly due to a 2014 traumatic brain injury. During closing arguments on Tuesday, he said eyewitnesses did not seeing anyone driving the Toyota Tacoma because his client was slumped over due to his medical issue.

“What I want to do right now is help you sort of organize the evidence. Basically, I want to help you bake a cake, OK?” he told the jurors. “When you bake a cake, you’re going to need a recipe. And that recipe is going to be the law. But … you’re going to also need ingredients, and the ingredients are the facts — the testimony the doctor makes, the body camera video that was introduced at trial. But one of the more important things is you have a measuring cup. That measuring cup is what the judge [Tracy Duncan] described to you as reasonable doubt. And that measuring cup needs to be full for you to be able to convict Mr. Hattat. And it’s not. I would submit you’re required to find him not guilty.

“It’s up to you to decide whether that measuring cup is full,” he continued. “If all those things are there, we’ll have a cake. If they’re not, we don’t have a cake. And that’s what you’ve got to keep in mind.”

As prosecutors could not prove Hattat was under the influence of drugs at the time of the crash, the jurors convicted him on two counts of negligent operation of a motor vehicle, as opposed to negligent operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of drugs resulting in serious bodily injury, which he was originally charged with. He was also found not guilty of two counts of negligent operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of drugs resulting in serious bodily injury. These charges pertained to the injuries suffered by the Sojkowskis’ children.

During closing arguments, Northwestern First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne explained that March 12, 2023, started as a beautiful day of skiing and ended with injuries and trauma the Sojkowskis will live with forever. He mentioned both children were hospitalized for three days, and the son suffered internal bleeding.

Gagne, who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Aidan Lanciani, told the jurors the incident was not a true accident.

“It was the predictable, foreseeable, avoidable consequence of decisions that Javery Hattat made that day,” he said. “The primary decision being to get behind the wheel of a multi-ton pickup truck after having smoked marijuana, ingested cocaine, used Suboxone, drank alcohol on little sleep, and try to maneuver that vehicle home from his buddy’s house in Greenfield to Bennington, Vermont. He rolled the dice and the Sojkowskis lost. That’s why we’re here.”

Gagne also displayed for the jurors a photo of the two mangled vehicles.

“This is throwing a match at a stick of dynamite,” he said. “You can’t be surprised it blew up.”

A jury consists of 14 people, two of which are randomly selected as alternates after the attorneys rest their cases. A selected alternate joined the other jurors on Wednesday after one person failed to show up to the Franklin County Justice Center.

Sentencing is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 6, at 3 p.m.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.