An upstate limo company operator was convicted of manslaughter charges Wednesday in the horrific 2018 crash that killed 20 people, including 17 revelers headed to a surprise birthday party, according to reports.

Nauman Hussain, 33, the former operator of Prestige Limousine, now faces up to 15 years in prison for the Oct. 6, 2018, catastrophe that also killed the driver and two bystanders outside a convenience store near a Schoharie intersection, the Albany Times-Union reported.

He is due to be sentenced on May 31.

The jury convicted Hussain of 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter after just six hours of deliberation, with the victims’ relatives bursting into tears in court as the verdict was read shortly after 2 p.m., the outlet said.

Prosecutors argued last week that Hussain bears “personal responsibility” for the deadly crash, and said that safety standards had not been kept up for the limo.

Hussain’s lawyers countered that a local Mavis repair shop and state DOT inspectors should bear the blame, saying that both were aware that the limo should not have been cleared to hit the road.

“Hussain had true belief that he had repaired the brake system, that the brakes were in fine and working order,” defense attorney Lee Kindlon told the jury during closing arguments Tuesday. 

“The people could not prove that Nauman Hussain knew or even should have known that Mavis falsified the repair and maintenance and safety inspections.”

After the verdict, Kindlon said he was “heartbroken.”

“Over the past four and a half years I’ve developed a relationship, a close personal relationship with my client, his family, his extended family overseas,” he said. .

“But I’ve also existed in an outer layer with all the victims families, and I know at the end of this chapter of the case I’m just heartbroken for everybody involved.”

Police said the rented 31-foot stretch limo, a modified 2001 Ford Excursion, careened down a hill at up to 100 mph, sped through an intersection and smashed into a car outside the Apple Barrel County Store & Cafe, striking the two bystanders and killing everyone in the vehicle.

None of the passengers were wearing seatbelts at the time. An independent review ordered up by State Police and the Schoharie County District Attorney’s Office determined that the Prestige limo had faulty brakes and had not undergone a state safety inspection for as long as two years before the incident.

Hussain, the son of limo company owner Shahed Hussain, a former FBI informant, was charged with criminally negligent homicide in the tragic wreck and was later released on a $150,000 bond.

The younger Hussain cut a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that allowed him to dodge prison — but the agreement was nixed by a judge and upheld by an appellate court, opening the way for this week’s trial in at the Schoharie County Courthouse in Saratoga County.

The 2018 tragedy was the deadliest US transportation crash in at least a decade and inspired state lawmakers to approve a series of measures to improve safety requirements for stretch limos.

“I want to thank the jury for doing an amazing job and listening to the evidence,” Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery said after the verdict.

“Today is about the families,” she said. 

The trial had been expected to last for up to six weeks but concluded in just six days after prosecutors called just two dozen of the 100 expected witnesses and the defense called no witnesses.

Hussain will remain jailed pending his sentencing.