Topeka ? A Topeka man convicted of killing a passenger when he lost control of the truck he was driving while drunk has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison.

Judge Thomas Conklin sentenced Glenn R. Triebwasser, 60, on Friday to 13 1/2 years in prison.

Triebwasser was convicted last month of involuntary manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol, driving on a suspended license, failure to maintain a single lane and a seat belt infraction. All the charges stemmed from the April 2005 rollover on Interstate 70 that killed Billie Jo Baldwin, 40, of Meriden.

Triebwasser had been convicted of drunken driving nine times since 1974 and was sentenced under a 2004 state law that allows longer sentences for repeat offenders. Without the earlier DUI convictions, Triebwasser would have faced a sentence ranging from three years and seven months to six years and three months, court officials said.

Triebwasser told the court he was “very sorry” for his actions.

Roseann Scheid, Baldwin’s sister, admonished Triebwasser for believing he was “above the law.”

“I do believe when you are released, you will go straight to the liquor store and do it all over again, killing someone else,” she said.

Defense attorney Jerry Berger had urged Conklin to sentence Triebwasser to a term of six years and three months. Berger had argued that Triebwasser’s alcoholism was tied to post-traumatic stress disorder he suffered after enduring combat while he was a Navy SEAL.

But Conklin told Triebwasser that for 30 years he had continually driven under the influence of alcohol and without a driver’s license.

At some point, Conklin said, a person had to “own up to his own failings.”