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Steven Douglas Skinner has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the April 2011 shooting death of a Dartmouth man – a legal move that was “heartbreaking” to the victim's mother.

The former mixed martial arts fighter from Cole Harbour was charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Stacey Adams at a home in Lake Echo.

Skinner’s trial was supposed to begin Tuesday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax, but the 46-year-old instead pleaded guilty to the lesser offence.

Justice Jamie Campbell scheduled a sentencing hearing for Sept. 16. An agreed statement of facts will be read into the record that day.

Defence lawyer Stan MacDonald told the court he and the Crown attorneys will have a joint sentencing recommendation.

Adams, 20, was found dead in a car parked at a house on Shadewell Lane in April 10, 2011.

Skinner fled the country after the slaying. Police obtained a warrant for his arrest that July and charged Brittany Leigh Derbyshire of Fletchers Lake with being an accessory to murder after the fact.

Derbyshire was found not guilty after a Supreme Court judge ruled her confession to two undercover police officers was inadmissible at trial. The Crown unsuccessfully appealed that decision to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the case.

Skinner was on the run for more than five years before he was arrested on a beach in Venezuela in May 2016.

He was brought back to Canada in June 2017 to face the murder charge.

Skinner was committed to stand trial for second-degree murder after a preliminary inquiry in Dartmouth provincial court last year.

Steven Douglas Skinner is shown at the Dartmouth courthouse in June 2017, after he was brought back from Venezuela to face a charge of second-degree murder in the April 2011 shooting death of Stacey Adams. Skinner pleaded guilty Tuesday to the lesser offence of manslaughter. - Chronicle Herald

Outside court Tuesday, Crown attorney Eric Taylor explained why the prosecution team agreed to a plea deal with Skinner.

“The evidence is as it is, and we have to go with what evidence we have available,” Taylor told reporters, with colleague Rob Kennedy at his side.

“The Achilles heel in this case is the fact that we had witnesses who refused to co-operate with the police – eyewitnesses in fact. It would have been a different situation if they had.

“The witnesses we had remaining generally came from a gangster lifestyle. They’re involved in drugs and alcohol and … criminal organizations. Witnesses of that sort, they come with certain baggage – baggage that means that they may not be believed.

“We certainly believed them, but there was a chance the jury might not. Because of that, there was a chance that Steven Skinner would walk free. We weren’t prepared to take that chance, so we chose a manslaughter plea.”

Taylor said it became increasingly apparent as the evidence came out at the preliminary inquiry that a conviction for manslaughter would be the result at trial.

He said the trial was set for four weeks and would have heard from dozens of witnesses and a number of experts.

He said he hopes the guilty plea will bring some closure to the victim’s family.

“We and the public will know that Mr. Skinner killed Stacey Adams,” Taylor said. “He did so by shooting him. And we’ll soon find out at the sentencing hearing how and why he did that.”

But the plea bargain did not sit well with Gloria Adams, Stacey’s mother.

“I’m not surprised,” she said after Tuesday’s brief proceeding. “It’s just the way our justice system is laid out, right? It leaves many loopholes. … It just gives them a game of chess to work with.

“I knew from the Brittany Derbyshire case that this was gonna turn this way.”

She said the plea deal was “heartbreaking.”

“I disagree, this is not a manslaughter case,” she said. “I feel there should have been more people charged in this case as well, not just Steven Skinner. But I’m thankful for one thing. I’m thankful that he told half the truth.

“My son wasn’t killed over drugs, like they had in the papers in the beginning. My son wasn’t a gangster. I don’t care who says what out there about my son. My son was a great person – great, well loved by many, respected.

“He didn’t do nothing to this man, and this man knows it. … I hope he realizes now that it was just all stupidity.”

She said the justice system is a joke to a lot of criminals.

“They get more rewards than punishment,” she said. “What do we get?

“They make a deal. Is there a deal for me?

“Steven Skinner did what he had to do through our justice system to get where he wanted to get.”

Manslaughter involving a firearm carries a minimum penalty of four years in prison and a maximum of life behind bars.

Skinner will have been in custody for about three years and four months by the time he is sentenced.

“The presumptive credit is one and a half days for every day he’s spent in custody,” Taylor said. “We’ve agreed to that presumptive credit.”

He wouldn’t disclose what is being recommended in this case but said it will involve further time in custody.

“That’s the one thing we wanted to make sure came out of this sentencing – that the family would know what happened to their son and brother and friend, that Mr. Skinner will accept responsibility for that, and that he will stay in jail,” Taylor said.

Kennedy praised Adams’ mother, family and close friends for the courage and strength they have shown throughout the process.

“Nothing is going to bring Stacey Adams back,” Kennedy said. “The family has endured an arduous eight years coming to this point. It’s a situation where we’ve assessed the evidence and determined that a manslaughter plea was appropriate.”