More than two years after a 2023 confrontation between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and a group of counterprotesters turned fatal, former Moorpark College computer science professor Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji pleaded guilty Thursday to involuntary manslaughter and battery in the death of Paul Kessler, the Associated Press reported. Alnaji, 53, admitted to striking Kessler, 69, with a megaphone during a demonstration in Thousand Oaks, California, causing Kessler to fall backward and strike his head on the pavement. Kessler died the next day at a hospital.

The plea was entered in Ventura County Superior Court. In addition to the manslaughter and battery charges, Alnaji admitted to personally inflicting great bodily injury, using a weapon, and that the victim was particularly vulnerable. The guilty plea resolves the criminal case that arose from a confrontation that reflected the raw divisions the Israel-Hamas war stirred on American streets.

According to the AP, the incident occurred in November 2023, when the event was advertised as a peaceful pro-Palestinian gathering. Counterprotesters, including Kessler, arrived, and during the confrontation Alnaji struck Kessler with a megaphone. Kessler fell backward and struck his head on the pavement. He was transported to a hospital but died the next day.

Alnaji, who was a professor at Moorpark College, stayed at the scene after the incident and told deputies he had called 911. He has been free after posting $50,000 bail. His defense attorney, Ron Bamieh, said he expects Alnaji to receive a county jail sentence of roughly six months, with good behavior, followed by probation. Bamieh also said that both he and Alnaji have received multiple death threats and that Alnaji feared publicity from a trial would further endanger his family.

“The court has told Alnaji to expect to spend time in jail and then be put on probation,” Bamieh said, adding that similar cases in which the defendant was not the initial aggressor have typically resulted in jail-plus-probation rather than prison time.

However, District Attorney Erik Nasarenko strongly disagrees, stating that the maximum sentence of four years is appropriate. “Alnaji should be sentenced to prison for his violent behavior,” Nasarenko said in a statement. “While no amount of punishment will ever fully account for the Kessler family loss, a prison commitment underscores the severity of this crime and will deter others from committing similar acts of violence.”

Alnaji is scheduled to be sentenced on June 25.