Alex Nguyen, who laughed when he learned about the death of his “friend” — a man he had kicked and beaten with his fists, a beer bottle, a chain, a chair and a table at an illegal downtown gambling house — was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for killing the man.

State Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario sentenced Nguyen and allowed him to stay at Oahu Community Correctional Center for one more weekend so his mother can visit him in a place where physical contact is allowed.

Nguyen, 35, will be transferred to Halawa Correctional Facility on Monday, where a glass partition between visitors and prisoners prevents physical contact.

At Nguyen’s sentencing, his attorney, Harrison Kiehm, said: “Alex and the victim, they were actually friends. They would hang out together. Billy (the victim’s street name) would actually work on his moped.”

Del Rosario interjected, saying the comments were not applicable.

Nguyen had been charged with murder but was found guilty of manslaughter in March for the April 2011 death of Duc Pham. Three co-defendants — Maauga Imoa, Manu Tonga and Sione Vulangi — pleaded guilty to assault and kidnapping and testified against Nguyen in a deal with prosecutors. The three received 20-year prison terms.

Pham, 42, was an employee of an illegal gambling house at Marin Tower in downtown Honolulu and died after a beating that began over a dispute about Pham allegedly stealing $1,500 from the house.

Imoa, Tonga and Vulangi, who handled security for the establishment, stopped beating Pham after he admitted taking the money, said Deputy Prosecutor Rodney Veary.

When a co-defendant went to get ice and a rag to clean up Pham, Nguyen started beating Pham up again, Veary said.

“It’s nonsensical,” he said. “There’s no motive.”

Nguyen, who was a bouncer for another game room, did not work at the Marin Tower room and was there only to drink.

Nguyen delivered a more serious attack than his co-defendants with a full beer bottle and a metal chair, even asking for a knife, according to testimony from his co-defendants.

Nguyen punched and kicked Pham and hit him multiple times with a heavy metal chain. When Pham tried to run away, Nguyen hit him with the metal base of a table and pulled him back, they said.

Imoa testified earlier that Nguyen kicked Pham in the face, causing Pham to pass out and start “snoring.” Nguyen then kicked Pham in the face four more times. When Nguyen finally stopped beating Pham, he looked around the room and said, “Who’s next?”

Nguyen left, and his co-defendants took an unconscious Pham to a bed in another room. When Pham started regurgitating, Imoa and Tonga took him to the Queen’s Medical Center and flagged down an officer for help, Veary said. Pham died at the hospital.

The next day, according to Imoa’s testimony, he told Nguyen that Pham died and Nguyen “laughed and said, ‘Good for him.’”