Samantha Young, who drove drunk last summer and killed an esteemed UW-Whitewater professor, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison.

In a packed courtroom, Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan listened as friends and family of Paula Poorman told him how much Poorman meant to them and the students she taught, and what should become of the woman who killed her.

Young, 20, of Mount Horeb, was speeding and weaving around traffic on June 27 when she crashed into Poorman, 56, of Madison, at high speed on Interstate 39-90 near Edgerton.

"Your honor, I'd like to apologize to the family and friends of Paula Poorman," Young said. "I won't make excuses for what I did. I made a stupid choice and put myself in a terrible situation. I got intoxicated then chose to drive home. Because of my actions a great woman is dead. I cannot apologize enough. It's beyond words how ashamed I am of what I did."

Despite a request for probation from Young's attorney, Helene Zinberg, Flanagan said quickly that probation was out of the question because of the seriousness of what Young had done.

"She didn't intend to hurt anyone," Flanagan said. "But for the people who sustained the loss, the effect is the same."

Siblings of Poorman told Flanagan that their own children now say they fear their own parents will be killed by a drunken driver, just like their Aunt Paula.

But they said the heaviest burden has been borne by Poorman's parents, who are both in their 80s. Poorman's father, Robert Poorman, said he and his wife will always feel an "abiding loss." He said he still sometimes breaks down, "when events still seem too much."

He said he also feels "deep disappointment that Paula lost the results of her hard work and hard-won achievements," with her death. Not long before the crash, she had become a full professor of psychology at UW-Whitewater, a goal after years as a therapist, said Susan Simmons, Poorman's life partner of 19 years.

She said Poorman had many plans, including finishing a second edition of a book she had written, a possible position in a professor exchange program in Australia and trips with Simmons to Alaska and Paris. Simmons said she also found, hidden among Poorman's things, cards and gifts that Poorman never had a chance to give her.

"Ms. Young cannot fix what she has done," Simmons said. "She cannot return to me what I have lost. She cannot bring joyousness back into the lives of her family and friends."

Still, she wished Young a long and joyous life, "because ultimately, it is only by making the decision to live a good and joy-filled life that she can honor the woman she killed," Simmons said.

Assistant District Attorney Doug McLean, who asked for a 10-year prison sentence, said Young was driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.20 percent and cocaine in her system, at a speed that one witness said was close to 120 mph, when she crashed into the back of Poorman's car.

She had nearly struck several other cars before then, and one witness described her driving as "off the charts crazy," McLean said.

The impact sent Poorman's car through the grass median and into the oncoming traffic lanes. When Young got out of her car, McLean said she seemed more concerned about the damage to her own car than about the fate of the other driver.

A short time later in a State Patrol squad car, Young only showed emotion when hearing that someone had died in the crash, McLean said, but soon joked with the trooper driving the car, asking him whether he had seen the film "Training Day."

"Whatever the explanation is, it is something that is chilling," McLean said.

Zinberg said she believes Young was still intoxicated and under the influence of cocaine and today doesn't even remember the conversation. She said it does not reflect at all on Young, since she was not in control of herself at that point.

"Samantha is a good person," said her mother, Debra Young. "Over the past nine months I have seen her emotionally mature and come to take responsibility for her actions."