Lawyers for Alexander West have filed an appeal of his convictions and sentence for the July 2016 fatal boat crash on Lake George, arguing that numerous legal issues warrant a new trial or dismissal of the weightiest charges and that the sentence imposed on West was “excessive.”

West is serving a five- to 15-year state prison term for the July 25, 2016, boat collision near Cramer Point that killed 8-year-old Charlotte McCue and seriously injured her mother. He was piloting his father’s boat after drinking and using drugs for hours earlier that day, and ran over the top of a boat that was carrying the McCue family and Charlotte’s grandfather and stepgrandmother. The McCues, residents of California, were on vacation at the time.

West’s legal team, led by Cheryl Coleman of Albany, filed the appeal in recent weeks in the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in Albany, a mid-level appeals court that hears felony appeals. It lists seven perceived legal issues with the trial, as well as a claim that the five- to 15-year prison sentence, which prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed was not the maximum, was “unduly harsh and excessive.”

“The end result was a jury, who had not been selected in accordance with the law, that were privy to a tremendous amount of inadmissible and prejudicial evidence, that were prevented from hearing admissible and probative opinion testimony from a qualified expert,” Coleman wrote. “Taken individually or collectively, these errors deprived appellant of his right to a fair trial.”

Warren County District Attorney Jason Carusone said his office was preparing a response to the appeal. The prosecution’s response is due April 20. The two sides will argue before the appeals court later this spring or summer, with a ruling likely by the end of the year.

The court could affirm the verdict or order a new trial on all or some of the charges.