Wearing yellow ribbons with a “T” in the middle pinned to their chests, family members of Trent Hall struggled to hold back tears as the details that led up to his death were read in court.

“I hope some good can come of this, maybe that you do better in your life so he didn’t die in vain. I know this wasn’t your intention. Thank you for letting this be over,” Karen Hall, Trent Hall’s widow, said to Eon McNeill shortly after he pleaded guilty to homicide by assault and obstruction of justice, both third-degree felonies.

McNeill was originally charged with second-degree felony manslaughter; following a drawn-out preliminary hearing the charge was bound over by 4th District Judge Thomas Low. During the hearing on Tuesday Low said the ruling on the bindover had been one of the hardest he had ever written due to the tragedy of the case.

During a fight at the LaSabre bar, in American Fork, in January 2012 McNeill punched Hall in the head, knocking him out and causing Hall to fall and hit his head on the concrete. Hall died a few days later from head injuries resulting from the two blows.

“It is just such a shame,” defense attorney Tom Means said. “These were two young guys who could have met in a different situation and this never would have happened, there would have been no animosity between them.”

As part of the plea deal McNeill was sentenced to serve two terms of zero to five years in the state prison, with the sentences to run concurrently. McNeill is serving time in the state prison for four other third-degree felony charges, three of which were to be served concurrently and one to be served consecutively. He was out on parole for drug and financial crimes last year when the fight with Hall happened. Speaking to Hall’s wife, Low said he wished he could do more than merely punish people in cases like this. He wished he could bring people back to life.

During the hearing Hall’s family members, including his wife, father and sister, all said they supported the resolution of the case. Prosecutor Jeff Buhman said the resolution was difficult to reach because of the unusual circumstances that led to Hall’s death.

“Homicide by assault reflects what occurred but doesn’t feel adequate to losing a loved one,” Buhman said. “We thought our chances of a conviction for manslaughter were very minimal and this was a good resolution.”

McNeill spoke directly to the handful of Hall’s family members who attended, saying, “It wasn’t intentional, that wasn’t what was supposed to happen. I am sorry, I really am.”

Means said he doesn’t coach defendants on what to say during hearings and said he didn’t know what McNeill planned to say.

“I told him that I was impressed by his words, and I think it helped the family to hear that,” Means said.

Buhman said it is up to the Board of Pardons and Parole to decide how much time McNeill will spend in prison but said because of the way the system works it could be up to 10 years despite being only sentenced to zero to five.

“Nobody knows for sure because this is not a run of the mill case,” Buhman said. “We know what the board does with homicides like aggravated murders but there aren’t a lot of homicide by assault cases out there. The board takes cases involving death very seriously.”

Paige Fieldsted covers robberies, burglaries, murders and any other crimes and court cases. You can follow Paige on Twitter.