The former manager of a limousine company whose vehicle was involved in a crash in rural New York that killed 20 people was sentenced to between five and 15 years in prison.

Nauman Hussain, 33, was convicted of 20 counts of manslaughter this month after prosecutors claimed his company failed to maintain an unlicensed 2001 Ford Explorer limo which failed to brake and reached around 100 mph on a downhill stretch of road near Albany.

The limo, which had been rented by a group celebrating a 30th birthday party, smashed into a shallow ravine and came to a stop on the embankment.

The driver, 17 passengers and two pedestrians were killed.

Among them were four sisters and their husbands.

Hussain was sentenced by Judge Peter Lynch, who last year overturned a plea deal that would have seen him avoid a prison sentence.

Hussain stood shackled and wearing an orange jail uniform as his sentence was read in Schoharie County Court on May 31. The state's parole board will determine when Hussain will be released after he serves the minimum.

The incident on October 6, 2018, was the deadliest US road crash since 2009, according to National Transportation Safety Board.

During the wreck, the limousine hurtled down a hill and into a parked Toyota Highlander at 100mph and then struck two pedestrians outside Apple Barrel Café.

The victims included Amy Steenburg, who was celebrating her birthday, and her sisters Abigail Jackson, Mary Dyson and Allison King, as well as their husbands Adam Jackson, Robert Dyson and Axel Steenburg.

Newlyweds Erin and Shane McGowan, Amy Steenburg's brother-in-law, Rich Steenburg, Matthew Coons and Savannah Devonne also died.

The driver, 53-year-old Scott Lisinicchia, was also killed.

Pedestrians James Schnurr and his son-in-law Brian Hough died in the incident. 

Some of the victims' family members were able to address Hussain in court before the judge announced the sentence Wednesday.

'October 6, 2018, is the date forever burned into my heart and soul,' said a tearful Bethany King, who lost four members of her family in the crash.

'You have received a justified guilty verdict while the rest of us here have received a life sentence,' King said to Hussain, who was looking down.

Special prosecutor Frederick Rench told reporters outside the Schoharie County Courthouse that the sentence was what he expected.

'Mr Hussain was required by law to comply with certain regulations.

He failed to do so although he knew of the regulations and that they applied to him,' Rench said.

'He failed to abide by them, he failed to follow them and this crash occurred as a result of that.'

'It makes me and my family sick to know that a $2,000 dollar brake repair would have avoided this catastrophe,' said Kevin Cushing, who lost his son Patrick Cushing in the crash.
'Nauman, you're a sorry excuse for a human being.'

Hussain initially pleaded guilty to the charges as part of a plea deal that would have spared him prison time, angering the families of those killed.

The agreement had called for Hussain to plead guilty only to the homicide counts, resulting in five years of probation and 1,000 hours of community service.

Lawyers for both sides said at the time the plea agreement assured a resolution in a case that would have faced an uncertain outcome if presented to a jury. 

But in August last year,  Lynch, who was not presiding over the case when the deal was made, called the agreement 'fundamentally flawed'.

His rejection caught lawyers and relatives off-guard.

Hussein's defense attorney Chad Seigel said he was 'shocked' and that the judge's move was 'unheard of'. 

During his trial, evidence was presented indicating that the limo had been allowed to deteriorate and that Hussain's rental company, Prestige Limousine, had taken steps to keep it on the road despite a failed inspection that should have taken it out of service. 

The limousine had failed an inspection by the state's DMV the month before the crash, but Hussain removed an out-of-service sticker from the limo's windshield.

State police recovered the sticker from Hussain's personal car after his arrest.

Prosecutors have argued that Hussain took the sticker off the limo's windshield so that he could use it for more jobs. 

The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the crash was likely caused by Prestige Limousine's 'egregious disregard for safety' that resulted in brake failure. 

The prosecutor's office said Hussain allowed passengers to ride in the limo despite having received 'multiple notices of violations' from the state and having been told repairs were inadequate.

State police said the vehicle should have been taken out of service because of brake problems identified in an inspection a month before the crash. 

Board investigators also previously concluded that the rental company avoided inspection rules for oversized vehicles by filing false information about the limo's seating capacity. 

Two weeks ago, Hussain was found guilty of 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter by a jury.

After having been out on bail during the trial, was remanded into custody following the verdict.

The court had struggled to select a jury from the small rural town as so many people had been affected by the crash. 

Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery, Hussain's attorneys and Lynch agreed prior to the trial that a pool of 1,500 potential jurors would be needed - 5 percent of Schoharie County's population.