As a courtroom audience of 120 people looked on, a judge on July 9 sentenced a drunken driver to six years in state prison for killing Jared Franklin Purton, a scientist who worked at the Scripps Research Institute, in a fiery crash Dec. 13 in Torrey Pines. Michael Patrick Landri, 31, had been free on $50,000 bond, but was remanded to jail at the end of a long sentencing hearing in which both friends of the victim and defendant spoke to San Diego Superior Court Judge Eugenia Eyherabide. Landri was driving at least 88 mph in his Infiniti G35 when he struck the Volkswagen Passat that Purton was driving around 10 p.m. on Dec. 13, 2009. The impact caused both cars to explode in flames. Landri had a blood/alcohol level of 0.16, which is twice the legal limit, said Deputy District Attorney Renee Palermo. Purton, 33, of Pacific Beach, died in his car on North Torrey Pines Road. Landri, of San Diego, and a passenger was pulled from the wreckage by a University of California, San Diego employee who was unable to save Purton. Landri was a bartender and was returning from a Christmas party. Palermo told the judge Landri had a flask of whiskey in his pocket that was 2/3rds empty. Landri pleaded guilty March 19 to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, with the maximum sentence set at 10 years. Eyherabide gave Landri credit for seven days previously spent in jail and fined him $1,014. A Sept. 7 hearing was set to determine whether he should pay the victim’s parents any restitution. Landri remains in the downtown central jail pending transfer to prison.