A North Kitsap man convicted of killing of Port Orchard woman while driving drunk last year was sentenced Friday in Kitsap County Superior Court to just under 3.5 years in prison.

Judge Jay B. Roof imposed the maximum amount — the sentencing range was 31 to 41 months — after describing what he saw as minimal signs of remorse displayed by the defendant, Stephen T. Harvey.

“I presided over this trial for three weeks, and I did not see any sign of remorse, regret or contrition prior to today,” Roof said, explaining that remorse was one of the factors determining the sentence. “What transpired on Jan. 21, 2008, was a tragedy, and all the more so because it was avoidable and preventable.”

Coming from an afternoon poker game, Harvey, 34, was speeding and intoxicated when his car slammed into Jessica Z. Torres’ car as she drove home from work on Clear Creek Road that night.

Prosecutor Cami Lewis said Harvey’s refusal to take responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty put the victim’s family through the “indescribable anguish” of a trial, and that the sentencing range “does not represent the facts in this case.”

Lewis went on to say that she found it disturbing, and further evidence of a lack of culpability, that all three of Harvey’s children wrote letters in support of their father, including his 8-year-old daughter.

“He’s using his daughter as a pawn,” she said. “That letter was alarming to me.”

Family members removed Harvey’s children from the courtroom as Torres’ family spoke, beginning with her sister, Natalie Lindsey, who said she vividly remembers the “night from hell” when her mother came banging on her door in her bathrobe to tell her the news that her sister and best friend were dead.

“I want to wake up from this nightmare,” Lindsey said. “And I kept thinking that he would apologize, that he’d tell us he felt so bad for taking someone’s life. But that didn’t happen.”

Joan Davis, Torres’ mother, began by saying she was speaking on behalf of her daughter’s husband and children, who decided not to attend the sentencing.

“Nothing would make me feel better than for you to pull yourself up the way Jessica did,” Davis said, explaining that her 34-year-old daughter was a recovering alcoholic who had been sober the last nine years of her life.

“She fought so hard for her sobriety and for her life, and she deserved better,” she said. “He gets a second chance, and I think he owes us a better life, one not filled with trouble, (but) one devoted to helping others.”

Harvey’s defense attorney, Alton McFadden, requested that Judge Roof impose 33 months, describing his client as having no criminal history and “many letters that reveal what a productive member of society he was.”

Stephen T. Harvey Sr, the defendant’s father, said his son was “a very caring person” who “hurts deeply.” He described his son as a “social drinker, not an alcoholic,” and that he did not “remember the accident at all, and is still kind of mixed about the whole day.”

Harvey Sr said that his son did not plead guilty “because he was convinced he was innocent of being drunk. His attorneys had him convinced his blood-alcohol level was .04 or less. That’s why we had a trial.”

Harvey Sr concluded by saying his understanding of the law required the judge to impose the minimum amount, 31 months.

One of Harvey’s daughters then spoke, saying her father “never planned for this to happen,” and “he is not the monster he’s being made out to be.”

Harvey himself then spoke, apologizing first for the letters from his children.

“I meant no disrespect, I have a very strong and loving family,” he said.

“I believe I am a good person, and I did not mean for Jessica to die,” he continued. “If I could go back to that night and give my life for Jessica’s, I would in two seconds. And God knows that.”

Judge Roof then addressed the court, remarking that there was a “constant theme” in the letters in support of the defendant that asked him not to “compound the tragedy by taking Mr. Harvey away any longer (than 31 months) — be compassionate,” he recalled. “The difference is only 10 months, and 10 months does not seem to be a significant amount to anyone other than the Harvey family.”

Roof also remarked on the “quiet dignity” of Jessica’s family, and said her mother’s statement reminded him of the last moments of the movie “Saving Private Ryan,” where the survivor is told that his responsibility in being saved is to “earn it” by then living a decent life.