Joe McKnight's Killer Found Guilty Of Manslaughter

A Jefferson Parish, La. jury deliberated for seven hours before finding Ronald Gasser guilty of manslaughter in the 2016 slaying of former NFL player Joe McKnight.

The jury—which had only one black member among its 12—elected to find Gasser guilty of manslaughter instead of second-degree murder, the charge prosecutors brought. The case drew criticisms along racial lines from the beginning, as Gasser was allowed to go free by police despite confessing to killing McKnight multiple times. Gasser had been arrested previously in 2006 on road rage charges at the same intersection where he killed McKnight, and during the trial jurors heard both about that and details of the road rage incident that resulted in McKnight’s death.

Gasser now faces up to 40 years in prison, and will be sentenced by a judge next week.

[ Advocate]