A Las Vegas man was sentenced to prison Thursday for a drunken crash that critically injured a U.K. couple and their young daughter.

Gavin Caci’s relatives and friends, including his parents and the mother of his child, filled nearly every seat in the gallery. Some sobbed as District Judge Tara Clark Newberry handed down the 8- to 20-year sentence.

“What kind of letters of support would your family have submitted if that had been your son, thrown across the street and slammed into a pole?” Clark Newberry asked him. “What justice would your family have wanted for that circumstance?”

“You made a decision to get behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated, and you ran over a family lawfully on the sidewalk,” the judge added. “For that, I have to hold you accountable.”

About 30 minutes before the Feb. 8 collision, Caci, 28, had taken his last shot of alcohol, according to prosecutors. It was Super Bowl weekend and Caci — whose blood alcohol content was nearly three times the legal limit — drank excessively at the Marquee nightclub where he was a promoter.

He then left The Cosmopolitan in his Tesla Model Y, which recorded the crash and the aftermath.

The rear-view camera showed his car drifting onto a sidewalk near Harmon Avenue and Audrie Lane before colliding with parents Luke and Jessica Sadler and their 2-year-old child, who was in a stroller, according to District Court records.

The family was in Las Vegas for a wedding and was walking to dinner.

After the impact, Caci’s front left tire was inoperable, Deputy District Attorney Corey Hallquist said. Caci continued driving for several minutes before he stopped at the Topgolf parking lot where he was arrested.

Caci originally pleaded not guilty.

Then in August, he entered a guilty plea to eight felony counts: two of driving under the influence resulting in substantial bodily harm, two of reckless driving resulting in substantial bodily harm and four of failing to stop at the scene of a crash.

He was also arrested on suspicion of DUI in 2019, but it did not result in a conviction, defense attorney Paola Armeni said.

Armeni said Caci did not deserve a lengthy sentence.

“One episode of poor judgment should not define Gavin’s entire character or establish that he will remain a danger to the public,” Armeni said. “He is a young man with the tools, support and motivation to move forward.”

Sinay Nodarse, the mother of the defendant’s 3-year-old son, spoke in Caci’s support. She told Clark Newberry that her child needed his father, just as she had needed her own father, who was incarcerated for 10 years.

Nodarse added that, since the crash, Caci had grown in his Christian faith and participated in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, sometimes doing so twice a day.

When he spoke during the sentencing, Caci said he was 245 days sober.

“I used alcohol and immersed myself in work as a way of coping and escaping the reality of losing (my older brother),” Caci said. “I am not saying this to excuse what I did. I mention it because AA has helped me finally confront parts of myself that I had avoided, and has given me principles to live differently.”

The Sadler family said they hoped Caci had reflected on and taken responsibility for his actions.

Luke Sadler appeared remotely, reading a letter written by his wife, who, along with their daughter, suffered life-threatening injuries in the crash. They spent weeks at University Medical Center before returning to the United Kingdom.

“There are no words to describe the fear that our baby might have been taken from us,” Luke Sadler said. “I hope that he can put himself in that position and when he looks at his own child, he remembers how precious life and family are.”

Contact Akiya Leggio at aleggio@reviewjournal.com.