BANGOR, Maine (AP) – A Maine carpenter who admitted to police that he shot his best friend in the back of the head has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Fifty-year-old Joseph Dumas could have faced up to life in prison for killing 70-year-old Mario “Sony” Litterio near a camp where Dumas was working. But Justice Michaela Murphy says Dumas was “extraordinarily cooperative” with authorities, had close ties with his community and was under the influence of cocaine at the time.

Dumas, jailed since his November 2007 arrest, wept throughout much of the sentencing. The Bangor Daily News reports he read a statement to the court saying words can’t express how awful he feels about the loss of Litterio and how he wished he had an answer for it.