A Windsor man has been sentenced to nine months in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
Richard Zoldi, 40, was sentenced to nine months "because he's already been in jail for 12.5 years," says Crown attorney George Spartinos.
Zoldi was convicted of murder in the death in Troy Hutchinson, but it was overturned on appeal so instead of a retrial, Zoldi pleaded guilty.
Hutchinson, a cook at a local restaurant, was fatally shot during an alleged drug deal turned botched robbery in east Windsor in 2006.
A co-accused, Shane Huard, was found guilty of first degree murder in a separate trial. He appealed his sentence of life in prison, but was denied.
A judge determined Huard could be convicted of the more serious crime because an “aider or an abettor can be convicted of a more serious offence than the principal.”
Zoldi successfully argued there were errors in the judge’s instructions to the jurors before they deliberated.
A mistrial was declared during Zoldi's first trial in 2009 after an allegation of jury tampering. The judge learned police conducted backgrounds checks on the many of the potential jurors.
Only the Crown is allowed to request a record check and the information wasn't shared with the defence.