BATAVIA — Several members of Julie I. Stratton's family sat in the back row of a

Genesee County courtroom Tuesday morning, watching quietly as teary-eyed truck driver Thomas

M. Wallace pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter.

Wallace was driving his tractor-trailer with no more than four hours of sleep over 27 hours

and streaming pornography on his laptop computer when he crashed into the back of Stratton's

disabled vehicle on the Thruway last December, state police found. The impact killed Stratton,

a 33-year-old Snyder wife and mother of two young boys.

It took just 15 minutes for County Judge Robert C. Noonan, in the mostly empty courtroom,

to accept a plea for the devastating accident.

In a statement, the Stratton family expressed gratitude to law enforcement authorities for

sparing the family a trial and helping "bring at least some closure to this nightmare for our

family."

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Earlier: Police say trucker was tired, watching porn

But the pain of her death remained heart-wrenching and incalculable.

"The admission of guilt today in no way diminishes the pain our family is enduring, as it

in no way brings Julie back to us," the family said. "The last couple of weeks have been

especially difficult, as Julie's two sons spent Mother's Day without their mother, and she has

not been there to celebrate birthdays and her son Benjamin's first steps.

"Every day, the boys are asking about where their mother is, and are looking for answers

about her passing ... "

Wallace will return from his home in Brook Park, Ohio, to Batavia to be sentenced Sept. 1,

when he will face a five- to 15-year prison term for the Class C felony. The 45-year-old truck

driver, also a parent, remained free on $20,000 bail.

Wallace's wife and other family members, the first spectators to file into the courtroom,

watched silently from the front row.

"He accepts full responsibility for this offense," said Michael Taheri, Wallace's

co-attorney. "He recognizes this tragedy has devastated two families."

Stratton's disabled car was in the passing lane after hitting a deer in the westbound lanes

of the Thruway, west of the Pembroke exit. She had called 911 and was waiting for assistance

when Wallace, a driver for Millis Transfer, a Wisconsin trucking company, slammed into her

car.

"Needless to say, this is a terrible, terrible tragedy, beyond any words that I could

express," said Genesee County District Attorney Lawrence Friedman. "But certainly, for the

sake of the family, we're glad that it ended up this way with the defendant accepting

responsibility for what he did and pleading guilty as charged."

A State Police investigation led by Investigator John J. McCusker determined, with the help

of E-ZPass records and GPS tracking of the tractor-trailer, that Wallace had been

sleep-deprived at the time of the crash. That violated federal regulations that limit the

hours commercial drivers can be behind the wheel. State police also found Wallace kept

fictitious log books to mask his hours driving.

The laptop computer was sent to the Western New York Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory,

which determined the computer was streaming pornography at the time of the crash.

"Fortunately, the defendant was cooperative in his conversations with Investigator

McCusker," Friedman said. "Initially, he was making certain denials, but ultimately ... the

defendant did acknowledge the accuracy [of McCusker's findings] and the risk that was

established in this case through his own actions."

Stratton is survived by her husband, Michael, and their two children, Sam and Ben, who were

3 and 1, respectively, at the time of her death. She worked for many years at the Cantalician

Center for Learning, which serves children with special needs.

A Stratton Family Benefit Fund to provide support for the boys has been established.

Donations to the fund can be made at any KeyBank branch.