Defence, prosecution spar as McKnight slaying trial opens
GRETNA, La. Claims of self-defence by the man who killed former Saskatchewan Roughrider and NFL player Joe McKnight withered under scrutiny, a prosecutor told jurors Friday, but a defence lawyer insisted the shooter fired as McKnight approached his car, spewing obscenities and threats following a traffic confrontation in December 2016.
The conflicting claims were made in opening statements in the second-degree murder trial of Ronald Gasser, 56.
Defence lawyer Matthew Goetz said authorities in suburban New Orleans were under political pressure to make an arrest when Gasser was jailed days after the shooting. Goetz alluded to racial unrest that year in American cities, including the St. Louis area and Baton Rouge. Gasser is white; McKnight was black.
Seth Shute, an assistant District Attorney in Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish, acknowledged that Gasser was initially freed after the shooting. But Shute said Gasser was arrested after investigators talked to numerous witnesses and assembled physical evidence contradicting Gasser’s claim that McKnight, 28, had tried to lunge into his car through a passenger window after both vehicles stopped at a busy intersection.
Jurors were selected Tuesday. Opening statements were delayed because unusually frigid winter weather in south Louisiana prompted a two-day closure of the parish courthouse in the New Orleans suburb of Gretna.
Shute said jurors will hear from dozens of witnesses. Some will testify about what Shute called a “mobile shouting match’’ that began on a bridge spanning the Mississippi River in New Orleans and continued into neighbouring Jefferson Parish, Shute said. Others will talk about hearing the pop-pop-pop of three gunshots, seeing McKnight fall and watching as Gasser exited his car with his handgun still smoking.
Jurors also will hear a police officer recount Gasser’s first words at the shooting scene: “He cut me off and got out on me.’’
McKnight drove his grey SUV aggressively that afternoon, Shute acknowledged. There was a small amount of marijuana in his system and a “therapeutic dose level’’ of Oxycodone in his system, he added, having noted that McKnight was training in hopes of returning to the NFL after an injury cut his pro career short.
But he said there was no gunpowder residue on McKnight, indicating he was not shot at the close range Gasser had indicated. And an examination of the wounds indicated that McKnight’s hands were resting on the window of Gasser’s car, with no sign that he had aggressively moved to get inside.
“His version of events does not match the physical evidence,’’ Shute said.
But Goetz countered that, “Ronnie believed he (McKnight) was coming after him.’’
He also claimed that, McKnight “was trying to kill’’ Gasser by running him off the road in traffic, before the shooting.
McKnight was considered the No. 1 running back recruit in the country when he came out of John Curtis Christian School in Louisiana in 2006. He signed with the University of Southern California, where he ran for 2,213 yards and 13 touchdowns and caught 66 passes for 542 yards and two scores in three seasons.