A drug-affected tradie who held his friend in a chokehold for several minutes before the other man died will walk free from court.

Quinn McPherson, 21, was on Thursday sentenced in the Victorian Supreme Court to a three-year community corrections order after pleading guilty to reckless conduct endangering life.

The South Australian carpenter was originally charged with manslaughter over Alex Robinson’s death but ultimately admitted the lesser charge.

The court was told McPherson, who had been learning mixed martial arts, put Robinson in a chokehold on May 13, 2023, after hours of drinking vodka, beer and doing lines of cocaine.

Robinson was in that position for several minutes in a Melbourne apartment, with McPherson only stopping after realising his friend’s lips were turning blue.

McPherson told two other friends to call an ambulance and they tried to perform CPR. But Robinson could not be resuscitated and was declared dead at the scene by paramedics.

McPherson told police they had been play fighting and the pair were good friends so he did not intend to hurt him.

In sentencing on Thursday, Justice James Elliott said Robinson’s death was a tragedy and the “play fighting” was inherently dangerous.

But he accepted McPherson was truly remorseful and Robinson’s death would be a burden he held for the rest of his life.

McPherson will have to complete 200 hours of unpaid community work and drug and alcohol treatment as part of his corrections order.