An unlicensed driver who plowed into a group of children in Wilton Manors two days after Christmas 2021, killing three, was sentenced Thursday to 73 years in prison — a dozen consecutive 48-year terms for leaving the scene of a fatal accident and vehicular homicide, and a consecutive 25-year term for one of the leaving-the-scene charges.

Before Broward Circuit Judge Andrew Siegel announced the sentence, defendant Sean Greer tearfully apologized to the family members of the children he killed and wounded Thursday, saying he hoped they could find peace.

Greer, 32, pleaded no contest in February to 15 criminal counts, including three counts of vehicular homicide, multiple counts of leaving the scene of a fatal accident, and multiple counts of leaving the scene of an accident with serious bodily injury. Siegel did not announce why he singled out one of the prison terms and made it consecutive.

According to investigators and prosecutors, Greer had been speeding on a residential road on Dec. 27, 2021, when he tried to dart around a city bus attempting to merge into Northwest Ninth Avenue. Greer continued to drive his Honda Accord onto a sidewalk into the path of the six children, relatives who were on their way from a park to a family member’s house nearby.

Andrea Fleming, 6, and Kylie Jones, 5 were killed instantly. Laziyah Stukes, 9, died nearly seven months later, on July 11, 2022. The three other children — Draya Fleming, 9 at the time; Audre Fleming, 2; and Johnathan Carter, 10 — survived their injuries. Greer, whose license had been suspended since 2016, fled the accident scene.

“I do want you to understand, I was on my way home from Wal-mart with a bag of groceries,” Greer said Thursday. He said he had been on probation for a criminal case and trying to turn his life around at the time of the crash. “I’m so sorry. What I need you to understand it was just an accident. I was on probation for burglary … I want you to know I’m sorry. I just want you all to have peace.”

One family member called out “thank you” at the words of contrition, but it came after a morning spent by others asking Siegel to imprison Greer for life.

Greer has already been sentenced to 35 years in prison for violating probation on his earlier criminal case. The new sentence will run concurrently with the existing one.

Earlier on Thursday, family members said they could not reconcile Greer’s plea for mercy with his decision to leave the children he wounded to die without stopping or trying to help.

“I was going to forgive you, man, but I can’t. I can’t forgive after what you took from me,” said Gregory Holcomb, grandfather of Andrea Fleming.

Sean Greer cries during his sentencing hearing on Thursday at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Other family members echoed Holcomb’s inability to muster sympathy for a man who, they said, showed none at the crime scene.

“You killed those kids, my baby, and you left them in the street,” said Tyricka Williams, Andrea Fleming’s mother.

Greer’s sister, appearing virtually via Zoom, tried to make the case that he deserves leniency because he has shown genuine remorse.

“He was willing to take his life that day,” said Jessica Greer, who also told the judge her brother was abused as a child by some of their mother’s string of boyfriends. “By the time I was six we were in the foster care system because my mom was in jail and my father was nowhere to be found,” she said.

But family members rejected the plea for sympathy, and Greer himself said he would not have let his sister testify on his behalf if he had known what she was going to say.

Siegel said he believed Greer’s remorse was genuine, but not enough to warrant leniency.