HERKIMER - A 24-year-old man who swam away from a boat crash that killed a passenger on an Adirondack lake in 2006 was sentenced Monday to two to six years in state prison.

Keir Weimer expressed remorse and said he accepted full responsibility for the death of 20-year-old Tiffany Heitkamp of Syracuse.

“I am so truly and deeply sorry for the pain and loss I have caused to the Heitkamp family, to her mother and father, to her family and friends, and to anyone who knew her,” said Weimer.

Weimer admitted his “irresponsibility and lack of judgment that night” and pledged “to lead a better life and be a better person.”

Weimer pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter in a plea deal reached with prosecutors about 30 minutes before he was scheduled to go on trial in September for second-degree manslaughter. That charge carries a maximum penalty of five to 15 years.

Weimer admitted he was piloting the boat that crashed into Alger Island State Campground on Fourth Lake in Old Forge in July 2006. Four other passengers were hurt in the wreck.

State police said Weimer had a blood alcohol level of 0.10, higher than the legal driving limit of 0.08.

After the crash, Weimer left his friends and swam to his family's camp on Thistle Island, about a quarter-mile away. Troopers said they found him leaving the water.

Troopers who arrested Weimer said he denied at first he had been driving the 19-foot 2000 Four Winns speedboat. At the time of the crash, Weimer, a college student from Pompey, was free on a pending DWI charge in East Syracuse.

According to police and witness accounts, the group with Weimer had been drinking at Daiker's Bar in nearby Old Forge, less than a mile across the water.

In the approximately 1,000 feet from Daiker's to Alger Island, the boat accelerated so fast that it hit the island and flew 150 feet inland, slamming into trees and ripping a lean-to off its concrete foundation.

Herkimer County Judge Patrick Kirk's small courtroom was crowded with about 40 supporters of the Heitkamp family, each carrying a long-stemmed red rose in her memory. Even Weimer carried one of the roses.

Heitkamp's mother, Mary Jo Heitkamp-France, said in court that the loss of her daughter had caused “unbearable pain.”

“You have taken from me the one thing that has ever brought me unconditional joy,” Heitkamp-France said, her hands shaking as she read her statement. “Tiffany was such a gift to us, and you recklessly and carelessly took that away.”

Outside the courtroom, Heitkamp's friends questioned the sentence.

“We've spent the last 16 months without her, and he's spent the last 16 months free, out drinking and living his life,” said Nicole Potocki.

“I just hope that with Tiffany's Law that they are trying to pass, that it actually does something,” Potocki said, breaking down in tears. “There's no reason this should have happened. It was the third time. It's not right, and it's not fair. Two years really isn't a long time.”

Weimer was convicted two other times for drunk driving, but because those incidents were in a car and not a boat, they could not be factored into the sentencing. Under the proposed “Tiffany's Law,” courts would be allowed to consider all prior drunk driving convictions, no matter what type of vehicle was involved.

Weimer is eligible for parole after two years, but the state parole board will determine the final sentence, said Weimer's attorney, George Aney.

The Heitkamps, as well as injured passengers Susan Hodell and Mike Canestrare, have filed civil lawsuits against Weimer. Those suits have been on hold pending the outcome of the criminal case, Aney said.