An Ottawa man has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a fatal 2006 attack with a baseball bat.

Ahmed Ismail Ali, 28, entered his plea Wednesday at the Ottawa courthouse in the death of 45-year-old Maurice Dinelle. Ali was originally charged with second-degree murder, but the Crown agreed to downgrade the charge, as they did not believe Ali intended to kill Dinelle. Ali is to be sentenced Monday.

Dinelle suffered severe head injuries when he was beaten with an aluminum baseball bat during a fight between two groups of men outside a gas station on McCarthy Road during the early hours of July 22, 2006.

According to the agreed statement of facts read in court Wednesday, Dinelle's group of friends accused a group of Somali men, including Ali, of being responsible for a mugging and the smashing of a car window earlier in the week. A yelling match ensued. At some point, one of Dinelle's friends grabbed the baseball bat. Ali wrestled it from him and used to it to hit Dinelle in the head.

At the time, Dinelle was reportedly very drunk and standing off to the side. Some witnesses said he had been yelling racial slurs. He died in hospital the next day.

Ali, who was 23 at the time, was charged with second-degree murder less than two weeks later.