The man charged in the shooting death of former USC and NFL running back Joe McKnight in a road-rage incident in December 2016 has been sentenced to 30 years in prison, reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune's Michelle Hunter.
A jury of eight woman and four men found Ronald Glasser guilty of manslaughter on Jan. 26. On Thursday, Jefferson Parish Judge Ellen Kovach announced the sentence.
"Let this be a cautionary tale to all drivers who rage behind the wheel of their car at other drivers," Kovach said, adding that the tragedy could have been avoided if either Glasser or McKnight "had the good sense, the courage and the wisdom to simply disengage."
The shooting took place at an intersection in Terrytown, Louisiana, a New Orleans suburb. According to the police report, things escalated quickly.
A witness, who declined to give her name, said she was leaving a store in the area when she saw a man at the intersection yelling at another man, who was trying to apologize. The man who was yelling shot the other man more than once, she said. She said the shooter shot the man, stood over him and said "I told you don't you f--- with me." Then he fired again, she said.
The prosecution claimed that the case was a cut-and-dry road-rage incident while the defense tried to make the argument that Gasser acted in self-defense.
Jurors rejected that defense, though they reduced the original charge of second-degree murder down to manslaugher after seven-and-a-half hours of deliberations.
"You took my child from me. My child," McKnight's mother, Jennifer McKnight, said in the courtroom Thursday morning. "Everybody says Joe McKnight, the football player. But he's Joe McKnight, my son."
McKnight, who was 28 when he was killed, was the nation's top recruit in 2007. He played three years at USC where he rushed for 2,212 yards and 13 touchdowns. In 2010, he was drafted in the fourth round by the Jets and in four NFL seasons he had 113 carries for 505 yards, 23 receptions for 241 yards and two touchdowns along with 2,270 kickoff return yards and two touchdowns. He played in the CFL in 2015 and 2016.
