A 19-year-old was handed a youth sentence Friday in the stabbing death of a Cole Harbour man nearly two years ago.

The Dartmouth teen pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree murder for killing Matthew James Ayer. The 28-year-old was found lying on the sidewalk on Halifax's Gottingen Street around 3:20 a.m. on Oct. 15, 2007.

The teen is the first young offender in Nova Scotia to receive a special sentence that involves intensive rehabilitative custody and supervision.

That means that up to $100,000 a year will be spent on special programming to aid in his rehabilitation. The teen suffers from substance abuse, among other problems, the court heard.

Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Suzanne Hood sentenced the teen to two years in the Waterville Youth Centre, in addition to the 20 months he has already served in custody.

The teen, whose identity is protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act, will spend another three years under supervision in the community after his release from jail.

Defence lawyer Lance Scaravelli said the sentence is the best outcome that his client and his family could have hoped for.

"Those people who won't accept this decision — who don't think it's right or proper — don't know all the circumstances. That's the problem with reading a sentence in a newspaper. You heard the judge reason her decision, and she reasoned it over an hour and a half," Scaravelli said.

John Ayer said he was thinking about his son while the judge passed sentence.

"He had a lot of potential. I mean, he went to fourth year university and he got murdered when he was 28. I think he had a lot he could have brought to society. He was well-respected," he said.

"What's the right penalty for getting your child murdered? I don't know if I really know. And, in some ways, it really doesn't matter to me because he's not coming back."

Ayer said he would have preferred a longer sentence, but he mainly hopes his son's killer is successfully rehabilitated.