Zach Sheridan

PITTSBURGH — The man convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a former Slippery Rock University football player has been sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison.

Isiah Smith, 23, of Pittsburgh's Lincoln-Lemington section on Wednesday apologized to relatives of Zachary Sheridan and to his own family for the August slaying outside the Original Hot Dog Shop the city's Oakland section.

Sheridan, 24, of Brookline was an SRU graduate. A four-year football starter at SRU, he also was a team captain. His last season at SRU was 2011.

Relatives of Sheridan asked for the maximum penalty of 10 to 20 years while Smith's family said a lenient sentence was in order.

Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Manning said, “Justice may lie somewhere in the middle — or not.”

The defense argued that Smith acted in self-defense after an alcohol-fueled argument outside the popular restaurant near the University of Pittsburgh campus.

Police and prosecutors claimed that Smith pulled a gun and shot Sheridan as he walked away from an altercation that began when some of Sheridan's friends, who are white, argued with a black woman and used a racial slur.

Smith, who is black, and his attorney argued that Sheridan was the aggressor for first punching Smith.

Police and prosecutors said Smith intervened and gestured toward his gun, which he had a permit to carry, and said “I'm from the 'hood” and “We don't want to take it this far.”

Smith and his attorney argued that Sheridan's punch split Smith's lip and chin, which required eight stitches. But prosecutors and Sheridan's friends said Sheridan threw the punch only after Smith aimed the gun at another one of Sheridan's friends.

Sheridan was walking across the street away from the altercation when Smith assumed an aiming posture and shot Sheridan, a surveillance video from a neighboring store showed.

Eagle Staff Writer John Bojarski contributed to this report.