Nearly two years after he crashed a minivan carrying six of his friends, killing one of them, a 21-year-old Wai­pahu man told a state judge in court Tuesday that he can drink responsibly.

"I know my limit, I know how (much) I can handle," Kyer Valeros said, "and I know that if I cannot handle, I don’t drink and drive."

Circuit Judge Rom Trader sentenced Vale­­ros on Tuesday to eight years in prison for manslaughter for causing the Feb. 4, 2011, death of Ervin Yanu­aria in the one-vehicle drunken-driving crash on the H-1 freeway in Aiea. Trader ordered Vale­ros to begin serving the sentence immediately. Trader also ordered him to repay Yanu­aria’s mother $13,713 for the cost of her son’s funeral.

The typical prison term for manslaughter is 20 years. Trader imposed the eight-year term under a state law that gives defendants younger than 22 a break in sentencing. Trader also sentenced Vale­ros to four years, to be served concurrently, for causing substantial injuries to one of his other passengers.

The Hawaii Paroling Authority will decide how long Vale­ros must spend behind bars before he is eligible for parole.

The state said Vale­ros drank at least six beers and 10 shots of liquor before getting behind the wheel of the minivan to go to a party in Waikiki. He refused his friends’ attempts to take the keys to the minivan away from him.

According to the court’s pre-sentence report, the passengers were getting scared because of how Vale­ros was driving, yet he refused their suggestions that he let someone else drive. At one point the friends pointed out a police vehicle on the freeway.

"You remember what you told your friends, about the police," Trader told Vale­ros. "You said f— the cops, and you slammed the pedal to the floor and you kept driving."

Police said Valeros’ minivan hit an embankment, flipped several times and came to a rest under the Kaonohi Street overpass in Pearlridge. Vale­ros and Yanu­aria were thrown from the vehicle. Police estimated the minivan was traveling at least 90 mph when it crashed.

The state said Valeros’ blood-alcohol content was 0.17, more that twice the legal threshold for drunken driving. He was 19 years old at the time — too young to legally consume alcohol.

On Nov. 1, while Vale­ros was free on bail after pleading no contest to manslaughter and assault, police arrested him for driving while intoxicated. That case is pending. However, Vale­ros admitted to Trader on Tuesday that he drank alcohol that day at a cousin’s Halloween party. He was not eligible to legally consume alcohol until he turned 21 later that month.