Alicia Little's fiancé struck and killed her with his car. His sentence? 4 years.

— With AAP.

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Content Warning: This post contains references to domestic violence, and may be triggering to some readers.

At 3.29pm on December 28, 2017, Alicia Maree Little sent a text message to her mother. She was leaving her fiancé, Charles Evans. She’d been packing her bags and making arrangements to go. “In the next 24 hours,” she wrote, “there’s going to be drama.”

Later that afternoon, the 41-year-old was dead.

Evans was today sentenced in Victoria’s Supreme Court to four years in prison for dangerous driving causing death and failure to help.

The 45-year-old fatally struck his fiancée with his Toyota Hilux following an argument at their property in Kyneton that December day. As she lay dying, he fled.

“Alicia was a fun, charismatic, adventurous spirit who had an unimaginable ability for human compassion,” Alicia’s sister-in-law Lauren Little said outside court.

“She died alone and her injuries were so severe they could no longer support life.”

Evans had initially been charged with murder over the incident but, in a plea deal with the prosecution ahead of his trial, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge.

A relationship “marked” by violence.

In delivering the sentencing decision on Tuesday, Justice Lesley Taylor described the couple’s four-year relationship as one “marked by episodes of family violence”.

“Both you and Ms Little had, on various occasions, contacted police alleging assault by the other,” Justice Taylor said.

By Christmas 2017, Alicia Little had decided to leave. Over the next few days, she contacted several friends and relatives about her plans. In phone calls on the day of her death, Evans could be heard shouting angrily in the background.

According to the account accepted by the court, that afternoon Evans took Alicia's phone, got in his ute at the back of the property and drove around a water tank and a fence at up to 16 km/h.

It is thought she followed him to retrieve her phone before she was struck. Evans then applied the brakes, and the vehicle skidded for 2.2 metres.

Minutes earlier, Alicia Little had phoned 000 to report that Evans was being "abusive and drunk". But when officers arrived it was too late. They found her lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth. She'd suffered extensive injuries, including blunt force trauma and lacerations to the liver.

Despite desperate attempts to revive her, she was pronounced dead at the scene.

By then, Evans had driven to a friend's house.

"There are no winners."

Evans pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to four years' jail and disqualified from driving for five years.

"There are no winners here," a relative of Alicia Little said after the sentencing.

"No amount of time or penalty will ever reverse the outcome for our loved one. We will all be forever changed because of this completely unnecessary loss of life."

Evans must spend at least two-and-a-half years behind bars before he's eligible for release on parole. He has already served more than a year-and-a-half in custody.