Days before his trial was set to begin, a Roxbury man this afternoon pleaded guilty to shooting 22-year-old Sheikh Kake after an argument two years ago, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

DARIUS WASHINGTON (D.O.B. 12/8/89) pleaded guilty to the crime of voluntary manslaughter for shooting Kake at the Academy Homes housing complex on the evening of May 17, 2008. Kake, who had recently moved to Roxbury from Maryland, died of a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Carol Ball sentenced Washington to a term of 18 to 20 years for Kake’s death, plus a concurrent three- to five-year term for unlawful possession of a firearm.

Had the case proceeded to trial on Monday as scheduled, Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum would have presented evidence that “trivial trash talking” between the two men turned hostile and led Washington to shoot Kake with a 9mm handgun. The men had been friends and both had family in the housing complex.

At Kake’s cousin read a statement from the slain man’s mother, who resides out of state.

“Right before he died, Sheikh helped a random lady fix a flat tire,” Saran H aidara read on behalf of Asma Kake. “The lady tried to give him $20. He refused because, he said, ‘You remind me of my mother.’ Instead, she took his phone number. When he died, she wrote to me and told me that ‘Your son is an angel.’ She said an angel came and fixed her car.”

Two of the victim’s kin have named their children Sheikh in memory of him, she said.

“This is the cost of thoughtless violence and use of a gun,” Conley said. “A kindhearted young man with his life ahead of him is gone, snuffed out, and the ripples of that stupid, selfish act extend across generations.”

Catherine Yuan was the victim-witness advocate assigned to the case. Washington was represented by attorney Steven Sack.