When 18-year-old Aaron Deveau was texting while driving last year, having to spend a year in jail for it was probably the last thing on his mind. But when he crashed into another car, fatally injuring its driver, that’s exactly the sentence a Massachusetts judge handed down.

Convicted Wednesday of vehicular homicide, texting while driving and negligent operation of a motor vehicle in the Feb. 2011 crash that took the life of 55-year-old New Hampshire resident Donald Bowley less than a month later, Deveau apologized to the victim’s family in court before being taken away in handcuffs.

The state prosecutor set a legal precedent by charging a traffic offense typically punished with fines as a felony crime. Although Deveau admitted to being tired and distracted, he told prosecutors that he had not been texting at the time of the accident. But cell phone records showed that he had received a text at the time the crash is reported to have happened.