A commercial truck driver who was acquitted in the 2019 deaths of seven motorcyclists in New Hampshire has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to impaired driving in Connecticut a month before the deadly crash.

Volodymyr Zhukovskyy appeared in Hartford Superior Court and entered an Alford plea, which means he did not admit guilt but acknowledged the state had enough evidence to win a conviction at trial. The plea results in a conviction, and he was sentenced to 18 months of probation.

“He clearly understands the significance of this,” Zhukovskyy’s lawyer, John O’Brien, said during the brief court proceeding.

He was arrested for driving under the influence in East Windsor, Connecticut, on May 11, 2019. Connecticut officials alerted the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, but Zhukovskyy’s license wasn’t immediately suspended due to a backlog of out-of-state notifications about driving offenses.