Above, Assistant Attorney General Jay Sullivan, right, addresses the court as defendant Joshua Lipton, center, and his lawyer, Kevin J. Bristow, listen. At left, Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini discusses the case during the hearing yesterday afternoon.

The Providence Journal Bob Breidenbach

The former Bryant University student who gained nationwide notoriety by dressing in a prison jumpsuit for a Halloween party two weeks after he was charged in a drunken-driving crash that severely injured a Lincoln woman made a plea yesterday to have his sentence reduced.

“I have a very strong focus on what I need to do,” said Joshua Lipton, who yesterday wore navy blue prison sweats. “I know I can be a productive member of society.”

He had learned more, he said, in seven months in prison than in all his 23 years. He does not go a day without thinking of the victim and her family, he said.

But his pleas were tempered by those of Jade Combies, the 22-year-old woman who suffered brain trauma and fractures to her femur, hip and collarbone in the 2006 crash.

Her hands shaking, Combies said she wanted him to feel “completely and utterly helpless,” as she had in the three months she was hospitalized after the crash and in the year-and-a-half she has since spent undergoing physical therapy and four surgeries.

“This is not right, and it is not over and it will never be,” she said. To reduce his sentence would be a “gross miscarriage of justice,” she said.

Prosecutors say that Lipton left the Bryant University campus in Smithfield to buy cigarettes after a night of drinking gin and tonics in October 2006. He was speeding down Route 7 in the rain when he slammed into two cars, including one Combies was driving. Two hours after the crash, Lipton had a blood alcohol content of .156, nearly twice the legal limit.

And as Lipton posed for the Halloween photo that later appeared on the social networking Web site Facebook, Jade Combies was in Rhode Island Hospital, prosecutors say.

Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini in May sentenced Lipton, of Fairfield, Conn., to eight years in prison, with two to serve, after he pleaded guilty.

And yesterday, Procaccini seemed inclined to grant Lipton relief, despite Assistant Attorney General Jay Sullivan’s impassioned arguments against it.

Lipton had not participated in substance-abuse treatment programs while serving in the minimum security unit at the Adult Correctional Institutions, though he had a history of taking drugs, Sullivan said.

He noted that on Wednesday a judge had sentenced a South Kingstown woman to 93 months in prison for the same offense. “The deterrent effect to society is the greatest factor to consider,” he said.

Procaccini said he did not engage in “cookie-cutter justice” that doles out the same sentences to every similar offender and said there were differences in the cases. “I certainly wouldn’t want to go before a justice system like that,” he said. He rules individually, he said, based on the facts, the law and his conscience.

Plus, Lipton had endured nationwide ridicule because of the Halloween photos, Procaccini said. That, he said, would serve to deter him from future crime.

“Judge, it’s not just a deterrent to him,” Sullivan said. He asked that the decision whether Lipton be set free early be left to the Parole Board, which will take it up next month after he has served a third of his term.

Lipton’s lawyer, Kevin Bristow, asked that Lipton be released for time served because of his participation in prison programs, solid performance in work release and strong character references.

Procaccini noted that Lipton had waived his right to ask for a sentence reduction when he entered the plea agreement, but he said he could overlook that waiver in the interest of “making sure justice is done.”

He was inclined to reduce the sentence, he said, based on Lipton’s unblemished prison performance and conduct overall. Procaccini continued the hearing on the matter to Jan. 30, after the Parole Board has held its first meeting on Lipton’s case.

Before continuing the matter, Procaccini said that Combies made televised comments after the May sentencing that she would have been satisfied if Lipton served two or three months. He also referred to her own posting on Facebook yesterday, saying “Jade Combies is going to court today to keep Joshua in prison. Wish me luck!”

“It appears to me no one’s learned anything from this case,” he said.

kmulvane@projo.com