ARLINGTON, Va. – An Army contractor who pleaded guilty to shooting an Afghan man who set one of his teammates on fire will not be going to prison.

Don Michael Ayala was sentenced to five years of probation and a fine Friday in federal court. Ayala had faced up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

Federal Judge Claude M. Hilton found that the attack on Ayala’s teammate, “Did provide provocation and would have provided provocation for anyone who was there at the time.”

Hilton also cited Ayala’s military record and the fact that the incident occurred in a hostile area as mitigating factors in the case.

Family of Ayala and Paula Loyd, the woman who was set on fire, wept when the verdict was read.

“This is one of the happier days in my life,” said Loyd’s mother, Patricia Ward. “I didn’t need any more sad days.”

Jack Heany, who is the uncle of Ayala’s girlfriend, said he was also pleased with the verdict.

“Being a former soldier, I can understand,” said Heany, who said he served with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam.

Ayala deferred comment to his attorney, who was not immediately available for comment.

On Nov. 4, 2008, Ayala was working for an Army Human Terrain Team about 50 miles west of Kandahar when Loyd was attacked by an Afghan man named Abdul Salam, who lit a container of flammable liquid and threw it on her.

Loyd suffered severe burns over most of her body. She died on Jan. 7 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Ayala helped subdue Salam. When he learned how badly Loyd was burned, he shot Salam in the head, even though Salam was technically a prisoner at the time.

Mike Rich, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, argued that Ayala should be sentenced to prison to send a message to anyone who might be influenced by the case.

“While his actions are understandable, they are not excusable,” Rich said. “Defendant Ayala simply knew better.”

But Ayala’s attorney, Michael Nachmanoff, called Salam’s attack on Loyd a “terrorist act” and said Ayala and his teammates did not know at the time whether Salam might be a suicide bomber.

Nachmanoff said Ayala acted out of more than just anger, rather it was a culmination of factors that led him to shoot Salam including years of stress from being in combat zones and the realization of the pain and suffering that Loyd would endure.

He successfully argued that Ayala had already had been punished enough after spending three weeks in solitary confinement in Afghanistan and now being unable to work as a security contractor.

“The idea that a further message has to be sent by further incapacitating Mr. Ayala is simply unwarranted [and] unjustified,” he said.