Phila. man gets 5 to 10 years in road-rage killing

A Northeast Philadelphia man was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison yesterday after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of a man during a confrontation after a minor traffic accident.

Prosecutor Mike Barry said Enos Otto, 42, stabbed John Anderson, 43, in the neck and back after the two were involved in a fender-bender near Wissinoming Park. The slaying occurred about 9:30 p.m. Jan. 31, 2006, after Anderson's vehicle struck the back of a Ford pickup that then hit the back of the Ford Taurus Otto was driving on Cheltenham Avenue near Comly Street.

Barry said Anderson, a former schoolteacher, construction worker and father of two, walked into the woods at Wissinoming Park and Otto followed him. Otto then called police on his cell phone as the confrontation took place, Barry said. "I'm going to kill that . . .!," Otto screamed on the 911 tape played at a preliminary hearing last year in Municipal Court.

Judge Carolyn Engel Temin issued the sentence yesterday, and Otto's defense attorney, William J. Brennan said he was "very pleased with the outcome."

Brennan noted that Otto was initially charged with murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Otto "believed, albeit mistakenly, that he was justified in using deadly force to defend himself," Brennan said. Brennan said Otto, a father of two and a UPS delivery driver, "had never been in trouble in his life."