One of the two shooters in a double homicide at an after-hours club in Minneapolis last year pleaded guilty this week to manslaughter and was immediately sentenced to nearly nine years in prison, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Wednesday.

Dominique Sinkfield, 25, of Brooklyn Park, had a second-degree murder charge against him dropped. He received credit for 263 days served.

Sinkfield admitted to Hennepin County District Judge Tamara Garcia on Tuesday that he shot and killed Demetrius Harper, 32, of Minneapolis, early on March 8 at the after-hours club at 3859 Fremont Av. N.

Sinkfield was offered the lesser charge of manslaughter in part because he had grounds for a self-defense case.

While prosecutors were prepared to argue against claim, it raised the real possibility that a jury might acquit him and that he would serve no time for a crime he has admitted he committed.

"I'd like to say I'm sorry to the victim's family," Sinkfield said when it was his turn to speak at the sentencing. "To my family, I apologize."

Cory Bryant, 28, of Minneapolis, is scheduled for trial later this year for the same incident, in which he is charged with killing 23-year-old Minneapolis resident Erick Felton.

Just days after the shooting, the Hennepin County attorney's office issued a notice of nuisance to the owner of the building where the shootings occurred, demanding that the after-hours club and other nuisance activities end.

The landlord boarded up the building until he was able to rent it to a church, which now holds services there.

David Chanen • 612-673-4465