Football hero’s killer hopes to avoid 2nd murder charge
By KEVIN McGILL
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments on whether the man who killed a former NFL player in a road rage incident can be tried again for murder after his conviction on a lesser charge was overturned. Authorities in the New Orleans suburb of Jefferson Parish originally charged Ronald Gasser with second-degree murder in the 2016 shooting of Joe McKnight. A jury convicted Gasser of manslaughter instead. But that verdict was later overturned because it came from a non-unanimous jury. Prosecutors went to the Supreme Court after lower courts said they could retry McKnight for manslaughter but not on the murder charge. Gasser claimed he shot McKnight in self-defense.
