SA driver loses appeal over fatal crash

A man has failed to win a cut in his sentence for killing his pregnant fiancee in a car crash that occurred when he was naked, drunk, drugged and driving without a licence.

In September, John James Ceruto, 31, was jailed for a minimum of five years and five months and a maximum of six years and 10 months in the South Australian District Court.

He had pleaded guilty to an aggravated count of causing death by dangerous driving and to driving while unlicensed.

His 23-year-old partner, Lisa Smith, was pregnant with their child when Ceruto crashed into a power pole and a tree in Adelaide on January 11 last year.

On Thursday, the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed his sentence challenge, rejecting claims it was "manifestly excessive".

While at the "high end", the sentence was not unreasonable or "plainly unjust", the court ruled.