SAN DIEGO -- A 19-year-old Rancho Bernardo resident who was drunk when he crashed an SUV carrying five people on a residential street -- killing a friend -- was sentenced Tuesday to nearly five years in state prison.

Richard Caldwell pleaded guilty Dec. 3 to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and DUI causing injury.

Caldwell had a .12 percent blood-alcohol level and was driving at least 65 mph down a residential street in Poway when he lost control of the vehicle about 2:30 a.m. last April 10, killing Charles Amaro II and injuring two others.

Defense attorney Michael Harkness, arguing unsuccessfully for probation, told Judge David Danielsen that his client had no prior criminal record and had already suffered greatly because of the loss of his good friend on the victim's 20th birthday.

But Danielsen said the message needed to go out to the community that if a motorist drinks and drives and kills or seriously injures someone, there will be consequences.

"His responsibility is great, and our responsibility to the community is greater," the judge said in handing down the 56-month term.

Caldwell, who was also seriously injured in the accident, apologized to Amaro's family and his own mother.

"I accept full responsibility," the defendant said.

Harkness said Caldwell had dreams of playing college football at a major university, but those dreams were probably dashed because of his injuries.

Amaro's mother, Gidgette Nieves, said she prayed that Caldwell would be sentenced to a term that achieved justice.

The group in the SUV had attended a party the night of the accident.

Caldwell and two others had actually left the party but returned when Amaro called for a ride home, Harkness said.

Deputy District Attorney Greg Walden said the SUV rolled five or six times before coming to rest. He said what remained of the vehicle made it look like "a roadside bomb went off."

Amaro was scheduled to appear in court that same day in connection with an unrelated drunken-driving manslaughter accident in which he was a passenger. That crash killed a 19-year-old Temecula woman and injured a second passenger.