The truck driver charged in connection with the crash that killed a Fayette County man in January pleaded guilty earlier this week. 

Sukhjinder Singh pleaded guilty, but the sentence he faces is stirring outrage among loved ones of Kevin Lataille, the Smithfield man who went missing in January while driving home from work in West Virginia. 

Investigators say the 37-year-old Singh barreled across the Cheat Lake Bridge in an 18-wheeler on Jan. 19, ignoring whiteout conditions and speed warnings. Moments later, investigators said his tractor-trailer jack-knifed, hitting Lataille's vehicle and sending it into the frigid lake.

Singh admitted in court earlier this week that his actions caused the death of the husband and father from Smithfield.

"I literally purchased a drone to try to look under the bridge because we couldn't get under there," neighbor Mary Hlatky said. "We were out forever looking for him."

Hlatky says she fought snow, ice and freezing winds with others in the community to look for Lataille before rescuers recovered his body from the frozen lake.

When Singh was questioned by law enforcement, he claimed he lost control of the tractor-trailer because of the snow, but investigators say evidence proved otherwise and pointed to reckless driving.

Now, he faces up to a year in jail.

"I don't think that's fair," Hlatky said. "This man isn't coming back. He's gone forever."

In response to the crash, lawmakers proposed the Kevin Lataille Act, a bill to impose stricter penalties on commercial drivers who cause crashes while driving unsafely in severe weather.

But because the law changed after the crash, prosecutors can only recommend the old maximum penalty of one year in jail. Had it happened months later, Singh could've faced up to five years in jail.

"For him to just live his life knowing that a person was in there and now he's only getting a year when he knew," Hlatky said.

Singh will be sentenced next week. The victim's family is expected to speak at that hearing.