INDIANAPOLIS | A former FBI informant implicated by multiple witnesses in the 2003 slaying of a man in a Gary tavern could soon walk out of prison.

A divided Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out the voluntary manslaughter conviction against Andrew L. Watts, citing trial error by Lake County Superior Court Judge Salvador Vasquez. The 3-2 ruling erases a 47-year prison sentence, and Watts appears close to completing a six-year stint for an accompanying criminal recklessness conviction.

"At present, Watts, who three witnesses say killed one person and wounded another, stands convicted only of criminal recklessness, with a six-year sentence that has already been served if good time credit has been earned -- and in any event will expire in one year," Justice Theodore Boehm complained in a dissenting opinion.

At issue is Vasquez's decision to allow prosecutors, who originally sought a murder conviction, to provide jury instructions on the charge of voluntary manslaughter over the objection of Watts' attorneys. Voluntarily manslaughter was not an option, the Supreme Court majority ruled, because there was no mitigating evidence presented to suggest Watts acted in the heat of the moment.

Watts, 30, of Gary, was a Gary Response Investigative Team informant when he allegedly shot Roy C. Atkins, Jr., 23, in the back three times following an Aug. 23, 2003, altercation at Face to Face Lounge in Gary. A 28-year-old female patron was shot once in the leg, which led to Watts' criminal recklessness conviction.

Justice Boehm said a new murder charge is not an option because a voluntary manslaughter conviction is equivalent to a murder acquittal under Indiana law. Watts can be retried for voluntary manslaughter, but Boehm said the absence of "sudden heat" evidence at the first trial makes a conviction unlikely.

Lake County Prosecutor Bernie Carter said he plans to meet with Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter before deciding whether to pursue a new voluntary manslaughter charge. A spokeswoman said the attorney general also might ask the Supreme Court for a rehearing.

Watts, who is housed at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in southwest Indiana, was expected to be eligible for release in 2029 prior to the Supreme Court ruling. A prison spokesman did not return a phone call seeking information about the time remaining on Watts' criminal recklessness sentence.

Watts has two previous felony convictions, one in 1997 for operating a crack house and the other in 2000 for illegal handgun possession.