The family of an Etobicoke man beaten and stabbed to death by a couple of strangers calls it a failure of the Canadian justice system.
Brent Nisula and Nicholas Brennan were charged with the murder of 40-year old Mohamed Yay. The father of 5 was minding his own business while out for some fresh air on a warm August evening in 2014.
Nisula and Brennan, both in their 20's, pleaded guilty in a Superior Courtroom on Friday morning to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
The pair confronted Yay as he sat on a playground bench, in the area of The West Mall and Holiday Drive, as they searched for someone named 'Jamma,' whom they had a previous dispute with.
The plea deal means Nisula gets a 12 year prison sentence, including time already served.
Brennan's sentence is 7 years, but with time served that is reduced to 4 years.
The pair were drunk when they confronted Yay. Justice John McMahon said at Friday's court hearing that the amount of alcohol Brennan and Nisula had consumed is a mitigating factor in the case.
It is also one that likely would have made a successful murder prosecution difficult, according to NEWSTALK 1010's chief legal analyst.
Defence attorney Edward Prutschi, who is not connected to this case, says the Crown might have felt that proving Brennan and Nisula intended to kill Yay might have been unlikely, given how impaired they were during the attack.
The family says the plea deal is proof that Canada's justice system is "unfair."
Yay's widow, Sokorey Qorane, told the court through a victim impact statement that she is still overcome by sadness and anger at Mohamed's death.
She told NEWSTALK 1010 that she feels like she "lives a horror movie."