A 7-year-old girl fell and died during a truck ride. The driver was sentenced to jail.

On a summer afternoon last year, Andres Marin took five neighborhood kids for a ride in the back of his truck. But in what authorities said was a tragic accident, one of them fell out of the vehicle and died.

On Wednesday, Marin, accepting responsibility and expressing deep remorse, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of 7-year-old Sloane Kwartnik and was sentenced to six to 23 months in jail.

Marin drove five kids, between the ages of 6 and 11, around their neighborhood in August in his 1996 Subaru Sambar, a “microtruck” with a smaller cab and shorter truck bed than a full-size pickup truck. As Marin made a turn, Sloane fell out of the vehicle and hit her head on the pavement before the truck rolled over her body.

Marin told Montgomery County Court Judge Risa Vetri Ferman that the child’s death tore apart his close-knit community and left him devastated.

“My mind is now full of a deep sense of regret and sadness,” Marin said to more than 50 members of the Kwartnik family and their friends assembled in the courtroom. “The world has not been right since that day.”

Marin and his wife, Kerrie, said he had formed a close bond with the kids in their neighborhood and their house often served as an impromptu meeting spot. It was common, they said, for up to 15 kids to come knocking at their door, asking Marin to come out and talk sports over root beer and soft pretzels.

“I cannot begin to imagine what you and your family are feeling, and what you go through on a daily basis,” Marin said to the Kwartniks. “But I do know this: I have feelings. A feeling that I lost something special. I lost my friends, I lost my neighborhood and most importantly, I lost your trust in me.”

Sloane’s parents, Brandie and James, railed against Marin, calling him reckless and blaming him for the death of their daughter.

James Kwartnik said that Marin had “condemned [his] family to a lifetime of depression.“ He criticized the negotiated sentence Marin settled on with prosecutors and urged Ferman to reject it, saying six months of incarceration would not be justice for his daughter.

But Ferman said it was clear Marin did not act with malice or deliberately try to hurt Sloane. He took full responsibility for his actions, the judge said, and cooperated with prosecutors to bring the case to a conclusion just seven months after his arrest.

“This case, it goes without saying, involves an unimaginable tragedy,” Ferman said. “But no number can be attached to a sentence that will make up for this loss.”

Prosecutors noted that the Sambar’s flatbed had walls that were less than a foot high, and that having passengers under the age of 18 riding in that portion of the vehicle on a roadway violated the state’s vehicle code.

As Marin approached the intersection of Harvard and Jolly Roads, Sloane was leaning over the side of the truck and telling Marin to turn right and extend their ride, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Marin’s arrest. As he turned, the girl fell out of the truck and was run over.

Marin drove Sloane to her parents’ house, where they were making dinner. Marin came to their door with their grievously injured daughter, saying they needed to go to the hospital immediately.

James Kwartnik rode with Marin to Einstein Montgomery Hospital, where Sloane was later pronounced dead.

Kwartnik said his daughter’s death has shaken him to his core. He struggles to get out of bed in the morning, motivated only by his responsibility to his wife and their two sons. He lamented that he would never be able to see her graduate from college or walk down the aisle at her wedding.

“I was hoping to get 20 more years of her in my house,” he told Marin, “but you took her away from me before her 8th birthday.”