Chula Vista

A judge sentenced the killer of a Grossmont College business professor to five years in state prison Thursday.

Many friends of the victim, Janette Reints, 49, and the defendant, David McKay, 51, showed up for the sentencing by San Diego Municipal Court Judge H. Ronald Domnitz.

McKay, of Chula Vista, pleaded guilty June 25 to involuntary manslaughter in the May 21 shooting of Reints in his apartment. A murder charge was dismissed in a plea-bargain agreement after McKay’s attorney, Michael Sideman, insisted the shooting was accidental.

At the beginning of the hearing, Domnitz told the courtroom he could not impose more than a six-year term, which is the maximum for involuntary manslaughter. Sideman urged the judge to put McKay on probation.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Pippin discounted McKay’s claim, saying “it strains the meaning of the word accident.”

Pippin said his office was unable to produce evidence to show that the death was not accidental. The prosecutor said McKay used “fatally poor judgment” because he kept the gun cocked when it was displayed to the victim.

Sideman estimated McKay would be released from prison in 2 1/2 years if he gets credit for good behavior and participates in a work program.