Court: Killer of NFL’s McKnight can’t face 2nd murder trial

By KEVIN McGILL
Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana appeal court says 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. Authorities in the New Orleans suburb of Jefferson Parish originally charged Ronald Gasser with second-degree murder in the 2016 road rage shooting of McKnight. The jury came back with a lesser manslaughter conviction — but that verdict was later thrown out as unconstitutional. The state 5th Circuit Court of Appeal on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that Gasser cannot again face a murder charge as prosecutors had wanted.