If you ever met this dude you would take a more respectful tone.
Listen, just because he may be a nice fella, it does not take away from what he has done to himself.
Look at it this way(an analogy for you dumb fucks) :
A guy never drinks his whole life, but has a few obligatory glasses of wine at his work xmas party, just to placate some of his colleagues...
Being the sweet heart he is, he offers to drive a a colleague home, then proceeds to hit a patch of ice and drives into a pole, killing the passenger.
Now, he didn't mean to do it, was not drunk and hes clearly not a murderer(by your definition), yet he had drinks, was legally drunk and killed someone.
And, the law will see it as such, no matter how many letters friends and family write to the judge stating otherwise.
This fella may be sweet as pie, salt of the earth, shirt off his back etc, but it does not change the fact that he is a sick, delusional druggie that basically killed himself.