The man who shot the former NFL player Joe McKnight to death during a road rage confrontation outside New Orleans has completed his prison sentence less than eight years after the killing.
Ronald Gasser’s release from imprisonment quietly ended a winding legal saga that involved an overturned murder conviction and his subsequently pleading guilty to manslaughter – despite his initial claims of fatally shooting McKnight in justifiable defense of his life.
Reached by telephone on Friday and asked whether he had any message to share with the public over his actions, the 62-year-old Gasser expressed his belief that “the community has moved on for the most part”.
“The news cycle is so fast these days – most people don’t even remember this,” Gasser remarked. “That’s a good thing.”
McKnight’s sister, Johanna, said her family had no comment “because it’s out of our control”.
The district attorney’s office which prosecuted Gasser also declined comment on the completion of his prison sentence. The DA’s office in Jefferson parish – the word that Louisiana uses for county – pointed to a prior statement that it issued saying Gasser’s guilty plea brought a measure of “finality” to a case that was upended by the US supreme court’s elimination of non-unanimous jury verdicts in 2020.
Before his death at age 28 cast a national spotlight on Louisiana’s version of a so-called “stand your ground” law, McKnight helped John Curtis Christian high school in Jefferson parish’s River Ridge win three Louisiana state championships. He scored more than 50 touchdowns during his last two campaigns there alone, which were considered legendary among Louisiana prep sports aficionados.
He later played college football at the University of Southern California and spent three seasons with the New York Jets as well as one with the Kansas City Chiefs before a torn achilles tendon effectively ended his playing career.
McKnight was working at a local mental health hospital and keeping in shape for a possible football comeback when he encountered Gasser – a telecommunications contractor at the time – as both men drove on a bridge crossing the Mississippi River in New Orleans on 1 December 2016.
Witnesses later told authorities that McKnight had been weaving in and out of traffic at high speed when he cut Gasser off. A miles-long car chase ensued, with the men exchanging expletives until they both stopped at a traffic light after getting off on a suburban roadway exit.
McKnight got out of his car and approached Gasser’s open passenger window when a pistol-wielding Gasser – from his driver’s seat – shot McKnight dead.
Authorities later charged Gasser with second-degree murder, though he maintained he had to shoot McKnight to save himself from serious physical harm or worse. And he received a 30-year prison sentence after jurors in January 2018 convicted him of manslaughter – essentially an unintentional but nonetheless illicit killing carried out in the heat of passion.
But the jury’s verdict against Gasser was only endorsed by 10 of 12 jurors. And two years later, the US supreme court ruled that such split jury verdicts were unconstitutional.
Prosecutors sought to charge Gasser again with second-degree murder, but Louisiana’s state supreme court prevented it. The court found that trying Gasser for murder again after jurors’ decided to not convict him of that in 2018 violated the US constitution’s prohibition against double jeopardy.
That left Gasser ready to stand trial on a charge of manslaughter in early 2023. But in late 2022, he pleaded guilty as charged and received a 10-year sentence.
Gasser had already served a substantial portion of that punishment awaiting his 2018 trial in custody as well as in prison after the conviction. He also awaited his trial in custody.
Meanwhile, Gasser had the ability to shave time off his sentence by demonstrating good behavior in prison.
Johanna McKnight said her family learned Gasser was done serving his prison time in July – about a year and a half after the 2022 guilty plea.
Others were clued into Gasser’s release from prison in October after he successfully petitioned that authorities return to him some personal belongings which had been seized from him on the day he killed McKnight.
Among them was a ladder that Gasser had left in his passenger seat on the day of the slaying. Prosecutors had argued that ladder was a barrier providing Gasser additional protection against McKnight, who was unarmed that day.
Information from Louisiana’s department of corrections said Gasser remained under the supervision of a probation and parole office in Jefferson parish.
McKnight’s survivors included a son, Jaiden, who is now pursuing his own high school football career.
Gasser’s legal fate cut a stark contrast with that of Cardell Hayes, who in April 2016 shot the former New Orleans Saints football player Will Smith to death in an unrelated road rage confrontation in the city.
By a vote of 10-2, a jury convicted Hayes of manslaughter – just 10 days after McKnight’s death, in a courthouse less than 7 miles (11km) away from that crime scene. He was given 25 years in prison yet benefited from the same ruling that Gasser did.
Prosecutors re-charged Hayes with manslaughter while he awaited the case’s conclusion after bonding out of custody. He reportedly considered a guilty but stood a second trial in January.
Ultimately, jurors unanimously found Hayes, 37, guilty of manslaughter. And in July, he was handed a sentence of a little more than 22 years in prison.
