More than 13 years have passed, but for Natasha George it feels like July 2006 once again — that was when she got the news her cousin Jeffrey Lewis had been killed outside a Weston Road club.

“Right now, I feel like we’ve been cheated,” she said outside a downtown courtroom on Monday.

“If this is what Jeff’s life is worth?”

Just days after a ruling by the province’s top court sent dozens of Ontario trials into chaos, the more than decade-long prosecution of Lewis’ killer had come to an abrupt end.

Peter Johnson was originally charged with second-degree murder, but last week his third trial collapsed in a mistrial after Superior Court Justice Al O’Marra said he had no choice but to heed a Court of Appeal ruling that meant his jury had been improperly selected.

Jeffrey Lewis, left, was shot dead outside a Weston Road nightclub in July 2006. Peter Johnson, seen right in a 2009 courtroom sketch, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was released Monday, days after his latest trial ended in a mistrial following a Court of Appeal ruling on jury selection issues. Courtesy Natasha George, Alex Tavshunsky for The Toronto Star

The Crown had been one day from closing its case. By then, Johnson had already served the equivalent of an 18-year sentence — 13 years behind bars with extra credit for nearly nine years spent in pretrial custody.

On Monday, rather than face another trial, Johnson pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and was released on time served, with two years’ probation.

In court, dressed in black pants, a black and white printed shirt and a black Adidas jacket, Johnson flashed a thumbs up to friends and family as he entered the prisoner’s box. Asked by Justice John McMahon if he had anything to say with his plea he replied: “I’d like to say sorry. Deeply sorry.”

Had he pleaded not guilty, a fourth trial could have been scheduled to start this week.

“The thought that we were so close to wrapping it up and have this come at this time, it was just very tough,” George said after the hearing.

“Because we knew the outcome could have been different.”

According to an agreed statement of facts read in court, Lewis was an innocent bystander when Johnson shot him following a struggle outside the after-hours club Whispers on July 2, 2006.

Johnson, then 23, was with two other men when he was asked to pay a $10 cover charge to get into the club. He paid, but later came back with one of the men and tried to rob the woman working the door. Outside, “during the struggle over the purse, the money from inside was cast into the air and on to the ground,” according to the statement.

The club’s bouncer, Albert Grant, followed the two men into the parking lot, shouting that they had guns.

Grant next put Johnson in a headlock and secured him with a metal security baton. According to the statement of facts, Johnson “could not breathe and initially struggled to get free.”

When Grant released him, he was still holding the baton and Johnson “panicked.”

Johnson fired three shots at Grant, but missed. He instead shot Lewis, 31, and another bystander, Simeon Chase. Chase was saved by doctors at Sunnybrook hospital. Lewis was not so lucky.

In court, McMahon said releasing Johnson on time served was a “fair and just” decision, balancing factors like his young age at the time of the shooting and that he has shown remorse with his previous criminal record and the fact that the shooting happened in a public place.

McMahon noted that Johnson has “already served a sentence comparable to 18 years,” at the high end of the range for manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Johnson is left with one day in jail plus the two years’ probation. He was set to be released later Monday.

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“This is yet another case of senseless gun violence on the streets of Toronto,” McMahon said. Lewis “lost his life simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said.

In her victim impact statement, George described how Lewis looked out for her like the brother she never had. “A young man filled with promise” who, just before the shooting, had asked her to put a business plan together for an idea he had.

He had always wanted to be a father and was overjoyed when his daughter Destiny was born just “eight days before he was fatally shot over a $10 cover charge, of which I am sure was nothing to Mr. Johnson at the time,” Crown Rob Kelly read in court as Johnson stared straight ahead.

“Today I feel like the system has failed us. Has failed Jeff. Has failed Destiny,” Kelly said, reading George’s words.

Johnson nodded and smiled to family and friends as he was led away from court. Under the terms of his probation, he also can’t have contact with George, Lewis’ sister Delomico Williams, or the trial witnesses, must provide a DNA sample, and has a lifetime ban on firearms.

Johnson’s first trial ended with a hung jury. In 2010, a second jury found him guilty of second-degree murder and attempted murder and sentenced him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 18 years. Last year, the Court of Appeal ordered a new trial on the charge of second-degree murder because the partial defence of provocation — which could have resulted in a verdict of manslaughter — should have been left with the jury.

His defence lawyer, Anthony Robbins, said Johnson “feels terrible,” has the support of his friends, family and community, and is no longer interested in the “lifestyle” he had at 23.

“He does understand he’s getting a second chance and he intends to capitalize on it,” Robbins said.

The Court of Appeal ruling last week has had a far-reaching impact. The court was tasked with ruling on the constitutionality of changes to the jury selection process that took effect last September. Among them, the federal government abolished what are known as peremptory challenges, which allowed both Crown and defence lawyers to reject a specific number of potential jurors without having to give a reason.

The Court of Appeal upheld the constitutionality of the ban, but also ruled that if an accused person had opted for a trial by jury before Sept. 19, they should have had the right to use the old selection method.

Williams, who lives in the U.S. and was not in court, also submitted a victim impact statement, describing the heartbreaking feeling of watching her brother’s daughter grow up without her father.

“She will never experience his hugs, his infectious laugh, his pranks that kept me on my toes as a kid,” she wrote.

“He will not be there for her graduation, or wedding, he is just a fading picture to her. Because no matter how many stories we share with her, being able to recognize his love for her will never happen.” She wrote she hopes Johnson will be able to turn his life around, without forgetting the life he took.

“You have the ability to start over, Jeffrey Lewis does not.”