VISTA -- A man who prosecutors said was second in command of a La Costa gang that planned to kill a pair of Carlsbad bookies and a wayward member of their own group was sentenced Friday to five years probation.

Brian Edward McConnell also was ordered to finish a 365-day county jail term. With time already served, he's expected to be locked up for only another week or two.

McConnell, 27, pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to commit kidnapping for his role in the February 2006 plot.

According to court documents and statements by lawyers in the case, McConnell was the right-hand man to the gang's leader, Scott Lee Sepulveda, who owed two bookies more than $14,000.

Sepulveda conducted two meetings to determine how to handle the situation, and armed members drove around Carlsbad looking for the bookies, who are twin brothers. But the wayward member alerted the intended targets and reported the plot to police.

Sepulveda, who Judge K. Michael Kirkman called the most culpable of all the defendants, pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

"This at the very least was an extreme act of immaturity, elements of being misguided, perhaps some machismo on the part of all the actors," said the judge.

McConnell, who is married and has two children, has straightened out his life since he was released on bail in October 2006, according lawyers for both sides.