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       A Philadelphia man was sentenced to eight years in prison by a D.C. judge Friday after he pleaded guilty in a drunken-driving crash that killed an Uber passenger in the city early this year.

       Prosecutors said the driver, Reginald Johnson, 31, who was visiting the District on Jan. 15 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was intoxicated and driving more than 30 mph above the speed limit when his Jeep Cherokee struck an Uber driver’s vehicle at 15th Street and Massachusetts Avenue NW.

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       The crash, which occurred about 6:10 p.m., killed Carlos Enrique Christian, a 24-year-old George Washington University graduate student, and injured Christian’s fiancée, who was also a passenger in the Uber. Johnson, who was initially charged with second-degree murder, pleaded guilty in June to involuntary manslaughter and assault with a dangerous weapon.

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       “I am sorry,” he said at an emotional sentencing hearing in D.C. Superior Court. “And I know ‘I am sorry’ will never be enough. I truly regret the choice I made that night and regret the pain I have caused.”

       More than 80 of Christian’s family members, including his parents, aunts and uncles, traveled from the Dominican Republic, where Christian was born, and spoke tearfully in court about the pain his death has caused. Wearing photos of Christian pinned to their lapels, they asked Judge Robert D. Okun to sentence Johnson to as much as 40 years in prison — the maximum term for second-degree murder, even though he did not plead guilty to that charge.

       “This is an incredibly sad case,” Okun said. “One of the saddest I have ever seen.” The judge added, “I know this sentence is not going to make anyone happy or bring anyone back.”

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       Prosecutors argued for a 12-year prison term. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamie Carter played security videos from a D.C. bar where Johnson and his fraternity brothers were consuming alcohol before the crash. She said Johnson drank as many as six different alcoholic beverages within four hours before driving his Jeep.

       “He didn’t have just one drink and chose to drive,” Carter told the judge. “He spent the entire time, from 1:24 p.m. to 5:46 p.m., in that bar.” She also noted that Carter was charged with drunken driving eight years ago and was ordered to take part in an alcohol counseling program.

       There have been 45 traffic fatalities in the District this year, Carter added. “The District is struggling, and how Your Honor sentences in these cases matters, for the family and for this community.”

       Johnson’s lawyer Derrick Hamlin argued that many of the drinks his client can be seen consuming in the security videos were glasses of water. Hamlin said Johnson, who remained at the scene of the crash, had a blood alcohol level of 0.10, slightly above the legal limit of 0.08.

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       As part of his sentence, Johnson will not be allowed to drive in D.C. after he finishes his prison term. Okun also ordered him to participate in alcohol and drunken-driving counseling sessions while he is in prison and later during his probation.

       Johnson told the judge that he began drinking alcohol regularly after his parents’ deaths, as a way of coping. He said he once thought of himself as being a “social drinker,” but now realizes that “when I drink socially, I drink in excess. And drinking socially in excess is a form of alcoholism.”

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