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A defendant in a Douglas County murder case has reached a plea agreement that will let him serve about half the prison time he would have faced if he had been convicted.

Tremain V. Scott, 22, Overland Park, pleaded guilty recently to voluntary manslaughter in the March 14 shooting death of 21-year-old Quincy M. Sanders, Lawrence, who was shot 18 times.

Scott originally was charged with second-degree murder. The sentence for second-degree murder is about twice as long as the sentence for voluntary manslaughter.

The deal means that Scott -- whose attorney says he has little or no criminal history -- likely faces between four and six years in prison, compared with between nine and 11 years if he'd been convicted of second-degree murder.

Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney said Sanders' family members were unhappy about the deal, but she said she thought it was "in the best interests of this community." Members of Sanders' family couldn't be reached for comment Friday.

To prove second-degree murder, prosecutors would have had to show Scott killed Sanders intentionally or by showing recklessness and "extreme indifference to the value of human life."

However, there was evidence that Sanders was carrying a handgun at the time of his death and had come to the site of the killing, a duplex in the 2600 block of Ridge Court, to confront Scott.

"I think self-defense was something everybody saw ... might be a defense," said Martin Miller, Scott's court-appointed attorney. "It wasn't just Tremain holding a gun. It was a sudden quarrel -- it seemed to be anyway."

The definition of voluntary manslaughter includes an intentional killing "upon a sudden quarrel or in the heat of passion."

Scott and two Topeka men, Corey T. Robinson, 22, and Randy R. Owens, 27, were inside the duplex with a group of young women they'd met earlier in the night at The Granada nightclub, 1020 Mass., according to witnesses' testimony.

Some of the women's friends and relatives had come in and out of the duplex and argued with the men before Sanders, who was a cousin to some of the women, knocked on the door.

Owens testified he hid in a utility closet as Scott and Sanders confronted each other in the doorway. Owens said he heard shots, came out and heard Scott say, "I shot the (expletive) in the head." He said Scott then picked up a gun Sanders had been holding and shot him with it as he lay motionless.

Robinson, who was charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, is set to go to trial Jan. 12.