LaPORTE, Ind. (AP) — A man who stole a twin-engine airplane and drove it down a taxiway to impress his girlfriend has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Michael Santos, 39, might have avoided prison had it not been for extensive damage to the plane and his more than a dozen prior convictions. Those included drunken driving convictions that left Santos with a lifetime ban on his driving privileges.

"How many times does it take to get you to comply with the norms of society?" LaPorte Circuit Judge Tom Alevizos said Friday before sentencing Santos, who had pleaded guilty to theft and criminal mischief.

On Sept. 9, 2007, police said Santos was drunk when he tried to impress a girlfriend by climbing into a twin-engine plane outside LaPorte Municipal Airport. The woman was aboard the plane with Santos behind the controls as he drove a half-mile down the taxiway.

He missed a curve leading to the runway and steered into a soybean field, with the propellers chopping up the plants before the front wheels sunk into the soft dirt.

The damaged plane was found the next morning and Santos was arrested several weeks later.

Defense attorney Don Pagos had asked Alevizos to sentence his client to work release.

Santos told the court his first child is due before the end of the year, and he wants to see the birth and hold down a job to support his family while paying his debt to society.

"I need to start providing for my family now. I beg for leniency on this," Santos said.

But LaPorte County Deputy Prosecutor Jennifer Evans recommended prison time, citing Santos' criminal history of more than a dozen convictions and damage to the plane estimated at $160,000.

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Information from: The News-Dispatch, http://www.michigancityin.com