A Toronto man has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for pumping six bullets into the back of an unarmed teenager as he walked away from a brief skirmish outside a Tim Hortons near Yonge and Bloor Sts.

“Rot in hell,” Kelly Whetter called out to Bradley Cheveldayoff as he was led out of a downtown courtroom Friday.

A jury found the 24-year-old not guilty of second-degree murder but convicted him of manslaughter in the April 13, 2016 death of Gabriel Nikov, Whetter’s only child. He was 18.

The prosecution was asking that a sentence of 18-19 years be imposed. The defence argued an appropriate range would be eight to 12 years.

Superior Court Justice Suhail Akhtar said he decided on a sentence of 16 years, less four years for time spent in pre-trial custody, after considering Cheveldayoff’s “uneviable criminal record” and bleak prospects for rehabilitation.

“His criminal activity, violent offences in a relatively short span of time, and offences committed on bail show his disregard for the legal process,” Akhtar wrote in an 11-page ruling.

“The fact that Mr. Cheveldayoff was carrying a loaded gun whilst prohibited by a court order further demonstrates a lack of desire to change his ways and divert himself from a life of crime.”

The judge cited several examples from his rap sheet, including two knife-point robberies on strangers. In 2013, Cheveldayoff slashed a youth across the face on a crowded subway platfrom for refusing to give up his mobile phone. The victim required 22 stitches.

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Akthar said that he also took into account several mitigating features including Cheveldayoff’s attempt to plead guilty at the start of the trial to manslaughter, rejected by the Crown, and his “disruptive and dysfunctional” childhood.

While the judge wrote he accepted that the jury found the Crown had failed to disprove provocation, the case is “close to murder.”

“There is a large disconnect, not found in the other cases put before me, between the scuffle and the shooting of an unarmed man who was walking away from Mr. Cheveldayoff when it seemed that hostilities had ended.”

Outside the downtown courthouse, Whetter said her disappointment with the jury’s verdict now extends to the sentence, which she considers too lenient. But she acknowledged that not even “life” would reduce the pain of losing “Gabe.”

“Nothing thing brings him back,” she said, adding a longer sentence would do more to “protect the public.”

Whetter said she has tried to compose herself throughout the court process, but Friday felt the need to “let it out,” referring to her parting words to Cheveldayoff.

She noted he was already on a lifetime weapons possession ban when he shot and killed her son.

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“He had a loaded semi-automatic handgun in his pocket at Yonge and Bloor. Somebody was going to be hurt, and it was just my son, but it could have been many more people.”

Whetter has started grassroots group that attempts to divert youth from violence.

“We have to just really get deep into the roots of why these young people … are picking up guns.”