Survivors and family members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club victims were offered the first words of solace they’ve received from the man they blame for changing their lives forever.

Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 28, was acquitted in 2022 of all charges alleging that his reckless behavior on June 21, 2019, in Randolph, N.H., led to the deaths of seven members of a motorcycle club made up of Marine Corps veterans and their spouses.

On Wednesday, he appeared virtually before a New Hampshire administrative law judge sitting for the Department of Safety to determine how long his driver’s license will remain suspended due to his admitted drug use ahead of the crash.

Zhukovskyy, who came to the U.S. from Ukraine as a 10-year-old, told those at the hearing he lacked the words to adequately explain how the crash has changed his life and offered his condolences, but did not apologize.

“This accident has drastically impacted me, you know, the loved ones in my life,” Zhukovskyy said. “I want to issue my deepest condolences to the victims and the loved ones that were hurt by this horrific accident. There ain’t many words that describe what I went through, what they went through, how bad this accident was.”

According to his testimony during trial, Zhukovskyy had taken a significant amount of heroin and cocaine before driving his 62-foot-long truck and trailer combo in 2019. Since the crash, he said Wednesday, he has gone entirely straight and is off drugs, alcohol, and has even quit smoking.

Attorney Earle Wingate, III, told the judge his client is willing to submit to alcohol and drug screening if New Hampshire does eventually reinstate his driving privileges, which have been revoked since the crash.

The Granite State can suspend Zhukovskyy’s license for seven years, and attorneys for the state and surviving family members both asked the judge to impose that sentence.

“It is clear that the members of the traveling public in New Hampshire would be protected, and must be protected to the maximum extent possible by suspending Mr. Zhukovskyy’s nonresident operating privilege for as long as the law allows,” attorney David Hilts said.

Killed in the 2019 crash were Jo-Ann and Edward Corr, both 58, of Lakeville, Massachusetts; Daniel Pereira, 58, of Riverside, Rhode Island; and New Hampshire residents Michael Ferazzi, 62, of Contoocook; Albert Mazza, 59, of Lee; Desma Oakes, 42, of Concord; and Aaron Perry, 45, of Farmington.

Ferrazi’s son Matthew Ferazzi told Zhukovskyy he was “lucky” to have been brought to the U.S. and given every opportunity to turn his life around, and that despite the not guilty verdict in 2022, the loss of his license might be the only justice the victims find.

“I see a man who has never taken accountability for his actions,” Ferazzi said. “You killed my father.”

Dawn Brindley, who survived the crash, shook with emotion as she described seeing “pieces of my friends scattered in the road,” before asking the judge to keep Zhukovskyy out of a driver’s seat for as long as possible.

“You killed five Marine Corps veterans and two spouses, due to your negligent behavior and the decisions that day,” she said Wednesday.

Wingate asked the judge to consider the five years since the crash as time served and to hold the remaining two years in abeyance while drug and alcohol screenings are carried out. He asked the court why the proceedings were carrying forward without any mention of evidence presented at trial that showed one of the deceased, Mazza, had been drinking and may have caused the crash, which brought objections from Hilts.

Even if Zhukovskyy did get his New Hampshire license back, Wingate said, it would not mean that he starts driving again the next day, as his driving privileges remain revoked in other jurisdictions.

The judge said that he would take all of the testimony he had received under advisement and issue a written decision to the attorneys involved within the law-allotted 15 days.

Zhukovskyy spent three years in pretrial detention while court proceedings carried on, and was further detained after his acquittal in 2022 by Immigrations Customs and Enforcement.

A judge ordered Zhukovskyy’s deportation last year, but the U.S. paused repatriation flights to Ukraine in 2022 due to Vladimir Putin’s unlawful invasion and authorized Temporary Protected Status for qualified Ukrainians. That pause was extended an additional 18 months in August of 2023 as the war continues.

Zhukovskyy is currently free of custody under an Order of Supervision.

Volodymyr Zhukovskyy (Herald file photo)