From the Standard-Examiner (Click here for a screenshot copy of the original page):
[Click here for the statement from the victim's family, also recorded at the Standard-Examiner.]
Ex-coach gets 3 months for one-punch death of Roy man in Vegas casino
By Ken Ritter of The Associated Press, Thu, 02/14/2013 - 11:43pm
LAS VEGAS — A former high school football coach and teacher from Florida was sentenced to three months in jail and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine Thursday after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the one-punch death of a Utah man at a Las Vegas casino.
Defense attorney Jack Buchanan said he didn’t believe a punitive stint in the Clark County Detention Center was appropriate for his client, 39-year-old Benjamin Gerard Hawkins, of Gainesville.
Hawkins has remained free following his November conviction in the death of 46-year-old John Massie, an occupational safety and health worker at Hill Air Force Base.
Clark County District Court Judge Valerie Adair also ordered Hawkins to serve five years of probation, undergo impulse-control and anger management counseling, and abstain from alcohol.
“We’re just as disappointed in this as we were the verdict,” said Buchanan, who had sought only probation for his client.
“He has no family members here, so he’ll be here to serve that punishment and then head back. So obviously it’s very difficult,” he added later.
Hawkins didn’t mean to kill Massie, of Roy, and the felony conviction ruined his coaching and teaching career at Bradford County High School in Starke, Fla., Buchanan said.
Prosecutor Maria Lavell had sought a sentence of one to four years in prison.