KITCHENER—They could have calmed down and gone their separate ways, but they didn’t.

Now one man is dead and the stranger who killed him with a knife to the heart is going to prison.

That was the bottom line Thursday as a case of road rage ended with a guilty plea to manslaughter in a Kitchener courtroom.

“It’s one of those offences that just makes you want to shake your head,” said Justice Gary Hearn.

Dead is Anton Radisic, 38, of Oakville, who was described in glowing terms by relatives despite a violent past.

Sentenced to three years in custody was Stephen McNaney, 44, of St. Clements, a single dad who answered a tire iron with a knife.

Cut loose altogether — in a plea deal that took into account blame on both sides — was his son, Martin McNaney, 19, who wore running shoes with his suit.

It all started, court was told, with a chance meeting at the Husky Gas Bar on Fairway Rd. North in Kitchener about 12:30 a.m. on a Saturday last October.

Martin McNaney was driving with his father after leaving a nearby bar where he was supposed to have worked as a disc jockey.

After gassing up, he pulled over near the exit to take a call on his cellphone. Radisic, just pulling into the lot, was angry at where he had parked.

Radisic rolled down his window, made rude gestures and yelled insults at the teen.

Stephen McNaney got out of his car, approached Radisic while yelling back and tried to take the keys out his ignition.

Radisic sped ahead and backed up at the elder McNaney, who threw a squeegee at him in response.

Pulling around a corner where he figured there were no security cameras, Radisic challenged Stephen McNaney to join him. Instead, Stephen McNaney told an attendant to call the police.

Father and son then drove away, but Radisic chased after them. Martin McNaney tried to lose him by going down side streets and through alleys. Radisic ran a red light to keep up.

The petty dispute came to a head on nearby Harold Avenue, where Radisic skidded to a stop in front of the McNaney vehicle, blocking it in.

Stephen McNaney got out and was almost hit as Radisic drove his vehicle forwards and backwards.

There was banging on Radisic’s car before he drove down the street, doubled back and steered toward the father and son.

This time, after stopping again, Radisic got out and retrieved a tire iron from his trunk.

As he approached with it in his hand, Stephen McNaney stabbed him once in the chest with a knife.

“I think you got me,” Radisic said, according to an agreed statement facts.

The damage done, both men dropped their weapons and the two vehicles left.

Radisic was speeding, apparently driving himself to the hospital, when he hit a curb on King Street East in downtown Kitchener and his car “catapulted end over end, landing on its roof.”

While he was still conscious when bystanders pulled him out of the overturned vehicle, Radisic was pronounced dead at Grand River Hospital a short time later.

Stephen and Martin McNaney were jointly charged with second-degree murder the same day.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“This could so easily have been avoided,” Hearn said.

The guilty plea by Stephen McNaney alone to the lesser crime of manslaughter took into account that there was no intent to kill Radisic.

Also a key factor was a concession by the prosecution that Stephen McNaney would have had a self-defence argument had the case gone to trial.

“There was clearly a very angry individual, who he had never seen before, approaching with a tire iron,” said defence lawyer Nicholas Wansbutter.

Hearn agreed the outcome — a three-year sentence for Stephen McNaney, with the murder charge against his son dropped — was “entirely appropriate.”

Radisic’s parents, however, sobbed and shouted out in anger as the penalty was imposed.

“There’s no truth — it’s just one side of the story,” said Marko Radisic, before storming out of the courtroom with his wife, Slava.

Earlier, relatives displayed framed photographs of Radisic with his wife, Suzanne Veloso, and their young son so Stephen McNaney could see them while victim impact statements were read by prosecutor Linda Elliott.

Slava Radisic wrote that they still visit his grave daily and “shiver” at the sight of his headstone.

“His name should have been engraved on a wall plaque for the most valued employee or a piece of art that his young son would give him for Father’s Day that would read ‘Best Dad Ever,’ ” she wrote.

Veloso, who attended with the toddler, wrote that she is afraid the “unbearable” pain will never go away.

“Who is going to teach him all the things that a father should teach their son?” she asked in her statement. “It’s not fair. It’s really not fair.”

Although he said it doesn’t diminish the value of his life, Wansbutter submitted Radisic’s long criminal record — including an assault with a tire iron while collecting a drug debt — for consideration by the judge.

“I do believe it is a relevant part of the facts,” Wansbutter said.

The three-year sentence for Stephen McNaney, who had only a minor prior record, is in addition to seven months already spent in custody. He declined to say anything.

Martin McNaney, who spent two months in jail before getting released on bail, also declined to comment, leaving court in the rain under an umbrella with his grandmother.

Read more about: