A man has been sentenced to two years in prison in the 2009 fatal beating of a homeless man.

The judge sentenced Merhawi Tekle to two years less a day in the beating death Donald Jackson, 71, on Friday. But the twenty-nine year old man will only serve a little over a year after already serving eight months before the trial.

Tekle was helping his younger sister retrieve a stolen metro pass when he confronted Jackson and another man sitting on a bench in Scarborough's Pine Hills Cemetery on Sept. 12, 2009, the court heard.

Tekle punched Jackson several times in the face and the abdomen when the senior stood up to respond. Jackson, who also had complications from alcoholism, later died in hospital.

Last December, Tekle was convicted of manslaughter at his second-degree murder trial.

At Friday’s sentencing, the judge said Tekle was vulnerable to acting impulsively in his protective role with family and friends. Maureen Forestell believed that he was helping his sister and that he felt terrible for causing the man’s death.