Rejecting a defence call for a sentence which would spare him deportation, a Calgary judge yesterday sentenced a Polish immigrant to five years for manslaughter.

Justice Suzanne Bensler said Sebastian Prokop's moral culpability in the stabbing death of Mohamed Aman placed him in the mid-range of manslaughter cases.

Bensler noted Prokop had walked Aman away from a New Year's house party at which he was unwelcome and the two men got into an altercation.

"Mr. Prokop testified the deceased pulled a knife and started to threaten him," said Bensler, who earlier ruled jurors must have found the killer was initially unarmed.

She said Prokop was able to disarm Aman by knocking the knife from his hand and picked it up off the ground.

"He said Mr. Aman came after him to get the knife and he stabbed the victim two times, once in the abdomen and once in the heart," Bensler said.

Defence counsel Rebecca Snukal had sought a sentence equivalent to less than two years so her client wouldn't face automatic deportation to his native Poland.

Since Prokop, 34, got a sentence in the penitentiary range, the city resident is subject to a mandatory deportation order even though he has spent most of his life here.

Prokop stabbed Aman, 33, outside a 19 St. S.W. home in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2008, after the men had walked away from a house party.

Those inside the party believed Aman posed a danger to them because it was thought he was the intended target of gunmen who killed his roommate, Nick Nilianbousheri, about two months earlier.

KEVIN.MARTIN@SUNMEDIA.CA