Yellowknife (July 09/01) - A 35-year-old man is in jail for nearly three years for killing a man in Inuvik during a drunken brawl.

Charles Stanley Firth pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of John Kalinek on July 5, in Supreme Court in Yellowknife.

Kalinek died in Inuvik on May 10 of blunt-force trauma to the head after a drinking party at a friend's house got out of hand.

The court heard how Kalinek became belligerent and started to threaten another man.

Firth stopped him and an altercation between the two escalated to Firth kicking and stomping on Kalinek while he was on the floor.

"Mr. Firth was initially defending himself," Justice Virginia Schuler said during his sentencing. "Once he got him on the ground he went too far."

Kalinek was left on the floor and a few hours later, he was dead.

"The deceased was the aggressor ... there was an element of self-defence ... (alcohol) doesn't excuse what Mr. Firth did, but might help explain his behaviour," Schuler said.

Firth has a lengthy criminal record which includes five assaults in five years.

"When I look at this record and see all those assaults, I see Mr. Firth has completed the ultimate assault and killed a person," Schuler said. "I would say, Mr. Firth, to give this a lot of thought while you are in jail."

Firth will serve the lower-end manslaughter sentence minus the two months he has already spent in custody.