PROVIDENCE — Finding “no question” that Patrick G. Coyle was driving in the Oct. 29 accident that killed his three friends, Superior Court Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia ordered the Woonsocket man to serve the full eight years of his suspended sentence.

“In my mind, there’s no question that on this night, this defendant, Mr. Coyle, was driving the automobile … and he was doing it in the most reckless of manners,” Indeglia said before handing down the sentence yesterday morning.

Coyle, 21, was serving an eight-year suspended sentence for a prior drug conviction when the accident occurred. Assistant Attorney General Stephen Regine argued that the crash, which killed brothers Steven and Victor Vasquez, 21 and 24, and Travis Thifault, 20, violated the terms of Coyle’s probation and asked that he serve the full eight-year sentence.

In his decision, Indeglia said that Coyle should have served some jail time for the 2005 incident in which he was arrested and charged with selling crack cocaine.

“In my mind, he got a huge break,” he said, adding that Coyle reportedly threw all of his cocaine in the buyer’s lap before he was arrested last year. Witness testimony during the violation hearing revealed that Coyle similarly blamed this incident on others by telling rescue personnel that Thifault was driving.

“He has a pattern of criminal activity, including, when caught, pointing the finger at others to absolve his own blame,” said Michael Healey, spokesman for Attorney General Patrick Lynch. Healey said Lynch appreciates the full sentence and looks forward to prosecuting Coyle’s felony charges “to the fullest extent of the law.”

Healey said Coyle will be eligible for parole after five years. A grand jury is currently investigating whether probable cause exists to charge Coyle in connection with the accident, and is expected to vote early next year.

Coyle declined to address the court before his sentence was imposed. Some of his family members, who were present during the entire three-day hearing, were in tears as Coyle was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs and leg irons.

The accident, which many have called the worst in recent memory, occurred at 10:45 p.m. at the intersection of Harris Avenue and Winter Street, near the entrance of Cold Spring Park.

State Trooper John Gadrow said the white Cadillac sedan went through the intersection, punched through the park’s wrought-iron fence, and traveled some 60 feet through the air before striking a tree. The car, which was attempting a left-hand turn onto Harris Avenue, hit the tree on its front-passenger side and landed on its roof. Gadrow determined the car was traveling more than 60 mph in the 25-mph zone.

Coyle, of 41 Congress St., was charged with three counts of driving to endanger with death resulting and three counts of driving under the influence with death resulting.

Randy Bergeron, a bartender at AMVETS Post 7 on Chester Street in Woonsocket, testified on Friday that he served Coyle four or five drinks over nearly five hours that afternoon and that he eventually cut him off. Coyle, visibly agitated, told Bergeron that he and his friends were going to another bar. Bergeron also heard Coyle tell his mother, who stopped in the bar before the men left, that he was not driving.

Arriving at the scene minutes after the crash, fire and rescue workers reported seeing Coyle sitting upside down in the driver’s seat before crawling out of the driver’s side window. DNA expert Robin Smith said blood left on the driver’s side airbag and windshield matched a DNA sample taken from Coyle, but she later said that someone sitting in another seat could have left the blood.

Coyle told rescue personnel that he was sitting in the rear passenger seat at the time of the accident. But after he was placed under arrest on Oct. 30, he told investigators that he couldn’t remember who was driving.

Indeglia said there was “no doubt” that Coyle was behind the wheel.

“There’s no way that anybody could have ever crawled around the vehicle, in the condition it was in, upside down,” he said.