Ulutunu Faumuina, tried for murder in the 2004 stomping death of another man, was sentenced to a year in jail yesterday after a Circuit Court jury found him guilty of misdemeanor assault.

Circuit Judge Karen Ahn imposed the maximum sentence possible for the misdemeanor offense and also ordered Faumuina, 28, to pay $3,652 in restitution.

Faumuina was tried on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Mikiala Kahalewai outside a Kona Street karaoke bar.

The victim, 26, became involved in an altercation with several men after he urinated inside Faumuina's pickup truck.

Faumuina would have faced a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole if he had been convicted of the murder charge.

But defense attorney Howard Luke successfully argued that Faumuina, now working as a carpenter, defended himself from the drunken aggression of Kahalewai.

Luke said outside court today that he had "mixed feelings" about the sentence.

"A year in jail is certainly much better than the life sentence which would have been mandatory if he had been convicted of the murder charge," Luke said.

But Faumuina, a former football player at Kaimuki High School, is "a gentle young man" who only acted in self-defense, Luke said.

A co-defendant in the case, John Penitani, pleaded guilty in mid-trial to a felony charge of second-degree assault.

Ahn sentenced him earlier to a year in jail and five years of probation.