A man who pleaded guilty to killing a welder from Thailand in our city has been handed a 10-year jail sentence, but will only serve six years as he received credit for time served and his guilty plea.

Michael John Stewart, 21, was originally charged with second degree murder in the slaying of 37-year-old Apichat Sudsaneh, but in part because of the guilty plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter, both the Crown and the defence had asked for a reduced prison term of six years instead of 10 years.

The judge accepted Stewart's guilty plea and the sentence includes two years for robbery and eight years for manslaughter. he also received a lifetime weapons ban.

"A guilty plea is always in and of itself a mitigating factor," Provincial court Judge Shelagh Creagh told the court.

"He has expressed his remorse for his actions."

The judge also directed spoke directly to Stewart saying: "I hope you are able to achieve some measure of rehabilitation."

The killing happened last June as Sudsaneh attempted to help two friends during an attempted robbery.

One of those men the victim helped was Somjai Jansanga who said he felt satisfied with the sentence handed down.

"He's satisfied with that because he knows the guy feels bad and he feels guilty for what he does," said Melissa Davis who acted as an interpreter.

One of the investigators on the case admitted he doesn't always agree with sentences handed down to killers, but in this case, Det. Bill Clark felt Stewart showed remorse.

"I interviewed him as part of this investigation, and I don't say this about a lot of people but I think he did show a lot of remorse, I know when I'm fed a line of crap in those interviews and he knew he screwed up," said Det. Bill Clark with the Edmonton Police Service.

When given the opportunity to speak in court on Wednesday, Stewart apologized to Sudsaneh's family and said he knows what he did was wrong.

With files from David Ewasuk