NEW ORLEANS -- The man who killed former NFL player Joe McKnight cannot be tried again on a murder charge, now that his conviction on the lesser charge of manslaughter has been overturned, a Louisiana appeal court ruled Thursday.
Authorities in the New Orleans suburb of Jefferson Parish originally charged Ronald Gasser with second-degree murder in the road rage shooting of McKnight, a standout high school football player in Louisiana who later played in the NFL.
The jury came back with a lesser manslaughter conviction. But that verdict came on a 10-2 vote. It was thrown out, along with Gasser's 30-year prison term, and a new trial was ordered after the Supreme Court ruled non-unanimous verdicts unconstitutional.