The man who shot and killed former NFL running back Joe McKnight will pay a step price for the crime. Ronald Gasser has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
“Let this be a cautionary tale to all drivers who rage behind the wheel of their car at other drivers,” Judge Ellen Kovach said at the sentencing hearing, via NOLA.com. She added that McKnight’s death could have been avoided if Gasser simply “had the good sense, the courage and the wisdom to simply disengage.”
Gasser’s lawyers tried to argue that the shooting of McKnight, which happened in a fit of road rage, fell within the confines of the state’s definition of justifiable homicide, arguing that McKnight lunger into Gasser’s car. The evidence, however, contradicted a shooting in such close quarters.
Prosecutors had charged Gasser with second-degree murder. The conviction came on a lesser-included charge of manslaughter.