San Diego

A Tierrasanta man who intervened in a dispute involving his son and ended up shooting a bystander to death was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in state prison.

Harold Edward Johnson, 51, had pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the April 28, 1990, death of 29-year-old Marcos Hernandez. Hernandez was “nothing more than an innocent bystander” to the dispute, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. George Clarke.

The shooting occurred at an El Cajon apartment complex where Joel Johnson, the defendant’s son, had lived with a woman. Her new boyfriend, Mark Wysocki, had struck Joel Johnson, and he called his father.

Johnson’s attorney, Louis Katz, said his client arrived at the complex “in an agitated state” and concerned over his son’s safety.

Clarke said the defendant shot Hernandez in the heart as he was standing near a gate. Hernandez was a friend of Wysocki, but was not a party to the dispute.

Katz, urging a six-year sentence, said, “We’re not talking about a hardened criminal. We’re talking about a man who made one mistake.” Clarke had urged a sentence of 15 years.