It was difficult for the family and friends of Lawrence Weiss to watch his killer accept a plea deal Monday that could get him probation.

"The guy took a life of somebody totally unnecessarily," said Burt Margolis, Weiss' friend of 30 years.

Weiss died March 13, 2005 at University Medical Center, two days after a confrontation with Stephen Shaw at Fabulous Freddy's car wash and gas station on Fort Apache Road at Charleston Boulevard.

Shaw, 38, a Las Vegas chiropractor, entered an Alford plea to involuntary manslaughter in District Judge Donald Mosley's courtroom. An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt, but it acknowledges that if the case went to trial a conviction probably would occur.

Shaw is to be sentenced May 24 and could receive probation or up to four years in prison. He could be fined up to $5,000.

In November of 2005, Mosley dismissed the murder charge Shaw originally faced, saying there was no evidence Shaw intended to kill Weiss, a 60-year-old retired Warner Elektra Records executive.

Prosecutor David Schwartz detailed for Mosley what he said he would have proven had the case gone to trial.

On March 11, witnesses at the gas station saw Shaw yelling at Weiss as Weiss walked away from him, Schwartz said.

Shaw pushed Weiss, who fell hitting his head first on a metal stand containing propane tanks and then on the concrete. Shaw then stood over Weiss and told him not to mess with him before he walked over to his wife's car.

One employee, who called for medical aid, said she thought Shaw spat on Weiss, Schwartz said.

According to the police report, the altercation began as Shaw's wife was having her BMW smog tested at the gas station, with her two young daughters in the car.

Witnesses told police, Weiss had an argument with her and believed she had cut him off on the road before entering the gas station. She called her husband after Shaw walked away to get his car washed.

Shaw, who according to his arrest report is 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 195 pounds, walked to the station and confronted Weiss, telling him "to pick on someone your own size," the police report said.

Margolis said his former colleague Weiss was about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 160 pounds.

Weiss' friends and family said he had a reputation in his career and personal life for being non-confrontational. "He was called the 'voice of reason,' " Margolis said.

He and other friends and family questioned why Shaw did not call for medical help after he pushed Weiss and obviously injured him.

"The only rage that day was Stephen Shaw's," said Weiss' wife, Sheri Weiss.

She said Weiss, a father of three, was in love with Las Vegas and had been so excited to move here from California after his youngest son Michael, now 21, went off to college.

They had been living their retirement dream, "and then I got a phone call from the trauma center and that was it."

Defense attorney Pete Christiansen said Shaw would not speak to media.