Several times during his sentencing hearing Friday afternoon, Kevin A. Cole lamented that he wished he had been the one to die in a single-vehicle crash four years ago that killed his best friend, David McAllister.

The two men had been drinking heavily that night. Cole was behind the wheel of a 1998 Chevrolet pickup truck that went off Tippecanoe County Road 700 West, smashed into a tree and rolled.

"I would rather it had been me, even if it would have caused hardship for my family," Cole, 41, said. "... I wish we had never gotten in the truck that day."

The Lafayette man pleaded guilty in March to operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death, at the time of the wreck a Class C felony under Indiana law. Tippecanoe Circuit Court Judge Don Daniel sentenced him Friday to two years in prison -- angering family and friends who came to support Cole, with some of them screaming and storming out of the courtroom afterward.

His daughter, Ashley Cole, 18, said her father changed dramatically after the wreck and that the family became closer. No longer did he spend his nights away from home.

"I notice sometimes he cries because he misses Dave," Ashley Cole said. "Most of the time, he's happy. But once a year, on the anniversary of the accident, he's sad."

No one from McAllister's family attended the sentencing hearing. Cole testified that McAllister's mother recently died.

Witnesses who came upon the crash scene south of West Point on June 25, 2004, found McAllister, 44, dead and helped pull Cole from the driver's side of the pickup. Cole initially denied being the driver and had begun walking away from the crash until paramedics arrived.

Tests taken at Home Hospital after the crash showed that he had a blood-alcohol content of 0.16 percent, double Indiana's legal limit to drive, and metabolites for cocaine and marijuana.

Cole, now a self-admitted recovered alcoholic, testified Friday to consuming alcoholic beverages the night of the crash and to using a small amount of cocaine. He also admitted smoking marijuana in the days just prior.

Charges against Cole were filed in June 2007, delayed in part because of difficulty obtaining Cole's medical records from Home Hospital.

Daniel also ordered Cole to serve two years on community corrections and two years on probation and to complete 200 hours of community service.

Under the terms of a plea agreement with the Tippecanoe County prosecutor's office, additional charges of driving with cocaine and marijuana in the body causing death and false informing were dropped.

"People who commit this act should be sent to spend time in prison," Daniel said. " ... Mr. Cole, you're a lucky man to have this many people care about you."