Damien Russell Janson was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of six years, for the manslaughter death of 23-year-old Jake Smith at Maddingley on May 20 last year.

The 32-year-old man has already served 378 days of the sentence through pre-sentence detention.

Janson was initially charged with murder, but after negotiations with the prosecution, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

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He appeared at the Supreme Court of Victoria on Friday for a sentencing hearing.

Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said a reasonable person in Janson's position doing what he did would have realised they were exposing the motorbike rider to an appreciable risk of serious injury.

"This was not an example of loss of control of a vehicle amounting to negligence. You are not being punished for deliberately colliding the ute with Mr Smith. That would be a far more serious offence, however you are being punished for deliberately swerving the vehicle into Mr Smith's path on the wrong side of the road," Justice Hollingworth said.

"The terrible risks involving you in doing that are self-evident and lead to a person's death."

Justice Hollingworth said not only did he take Mr Smith's life, but his actions also had a terrible effect on his family with moving impact statements provided by Mr Smith's parents, his brother and sister-in-law.

"There is nothing this court can say or do to get Jake back or heal the grief and pain caused by these events," she said.

"The sentence I am going to impose is not a reflection of the worth or value of Mr Smith's life, rather it's a reflection of a large number of factors which judges are required by law to take into account only one of which is the victim impact statements."

The court was told Janson, who was under the influence of drugs, was motivated by anger after he lost $50 in a drug transaction when he killed Mr Smith, who was a friend of Janson's drug dealer and who was Janson's friend at school.

Before the incident, friends met at Mr Smith's Werribee home and one friend asked if they wanted to travel to Bacchus Marsh with him to meet Janson.

The friend had arranged to sell drugs to Janson, who he had met in prison, but was annoyed so he decided to give him a bag of kitty litter instead.

Mr Smith and another friend went along for the ride to Bacchus Marsh on their motorcycles with the friend in his car with two others.

Mr Smith did not know about the drug deal.

They parked at a 7-Eleven in Bacchus Marsh where the friend had arranged to meet Janson. Mr Smith and the other friend on the motorbike kept their distance from the car.

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Janson had been at his Pentland Hills home with his family when a friend came over to catch up and Janson asked him to drive himself and his brother to the service station so he could buy drugs.

Janson arrived at 7-Eleven and got into the dealer's car with the intention to buy drugs but both became agitated. He gave the man $50 to use to put the drugs on his scale.

The man pulled out of the service station with Janson still in the car and they continued to argue about the drug sale.

Janson's friend and brother followed in a ute and Mr Smith and the other man on the motorbikes drove off.

Janson pulled out a screwdriver and the dealer pulled out a knife before he parked and Janson got out of the car.

Janson was picked up by his friend and brother and told his friend to follow the dealer's car as the guy had "ripped him off $50".

The dealer met up with Mr Smith and his other friend on the motorbike and they arranged to drive back to Werribee.

Both Janson in his friend's ute and the dealer with his friends were driving on Woolpack Road in Maddingley just after 7pm in opposite directions, back to Pentland Hills and Werribee.

Janson's ute passed the drug dealer's car on the road and he recognised it and saw the two motorcycles, the first with Mr Smith, following behind.

Janson reached over from the front passenger seat and deliberately grabbed the steering wheel while his friend was driving and pushed it to the right.

It caused the ute to veer onto the wrong side of the road and collide with the motorbike Mr Smith was riding.

The motorbike rider behind saw Mr Smith thrown 20 metres over the top of the ute into a culvert off the road and the ute continued to drive away.

He called emergency services and a passerby gave Mr Smith CPR but he could not be revived.

"When you came upon the other group by chance some minutes later, you reacted immediately and impulsively. You grabbed the steering wheel with such force that the driver was unable to control the vehicle's course," Justice Holligworth said.

"The ute was a large dangerous object moving at almost 50km/h at the point of impact. Although you only held the wheel for a couple of seconds, given how close the approaching vehicle was, that was sufficient time to result in the fatal consequences which followed."

The court was told Janson told his friend to keep driving but the friend stopped the ute.

Janson ran off into paddocks while an air ambulance was called for Mr Smith and his friend and brother were left distressed in the ute.

"On the contrary, in a selfish, cowardly gesture, you ran away leaving your friend and your brother to face the consequences of your actions," Justice Hollingworth said.

Police attempted to find Janson. He handed himself into the Bacchus Marsh Police Station two days later after the police interviewed witnesses.

Justice Hollingworth said she accepted Janson's judgement may have been clouded by his lack of sleep and ice use over previous days but they were not mitigating factors.

She said Janson had shown remorse in his comments to family, friends and to a psychologist and his remorse was compounded by the fact that after the incident, Janson found out he was Mr Smith's friend at school.

She said the fact Janson had managed to stay out of prison for six years in his 20s, meant he had some prospects of rehabilitation but these prospects were linked to addressing his drug use and behavioural problems.

Justice Hollingworth said Janson had a long criminal history with much of it related to drug use but this was by far his most serious offence.

She said she made a finding the offending occurred while Janson was under the influence of drugs.

Because Janson was unlicensed at the time, his driver's licence was disqualified for seven years.

If he did not plead guilty he would have been sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of eight years, according to the judge.

The maximum penalty for manslaughter was raised from 20 years to 25 years' imprisonment last year.

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