Conviction for man who hit Pacers' Jackson with car

Basketball Betting Lines

02/12/2007 -

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -A man who hit former Indiana Pacers guard Stephen Jackson with a car during a fight outside a strip club last fall was convicted Monday in a ruling by a judge.

Deon Willford waived his right to a jury trial, allowing Marion Superior Court Judge Patricia Gifford to render a verdict. She found the 23-year-old man guilty of felony battery and failure to stop at a scene of an accident, a misdemeanor.

He will be sentenced Feb. 28. He faces two to eight years in prison for the felony and up to a year for the misdemeanor.

Jackson, who now plays for Golden State, left the courtroom to catch a flight to Denver, where the Warriors play Monday night.

``I leave everything in God's hands and continue to work on playing basketball,'' he said.

Jackson was booked into jail Oct. 12 and has been free since on $10,000 bond. He has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of criminal recklessness and misdemeanor counts of battery and disorderly conduct in the fight outside Club Rio on Oct. 6. His trial is April 12. The criminal recklessness charge carries a prison term of six months to three years.

Willford's car hit Jackson after the fight started. The defendant testified Monday that the 6-foot-8 player was walking toward his car and pointing a gun at him.

``I thought he was trying to kill me,'' Willford said.

Other witnesses said Jackson was walking away from Willford's car and had no weapon out at the time. Jackson said he was hit by the car after he fired shots in the air from his pearl-handled 9 mm pistol to try to break up the fight. He had chipped teeth and bruised knees and needed plastic surgery on his lip after being hit by the car, he said.

Jackson testified that when he was walking from the club to his car, a man approached him shouting, ``dump, dump!''

``Where I'm from, 'dump' means pull out your gun and shoot,'' he said.

Pacers guard Jamaal Tinsley testified that he also grabbed his gun and put it in his pocket when he heard ``dump.'' He did not fire any shots and was not charged.

Jackson said the man, identified by prosecutors as Willford's cousin, Quentin ``Fingers'' Willford, had one hand in a back pocket and another in his shirt. The fight started after Jackson and those with him realized Willford had no weapon.

``It was like an all-out brawl,'' Jackson said. ``I started seeing more and more faces I didn't know.'' He said he fired a couple of shots in the air to break up the fight, and then the car hit him.

Besides Tinsley, Pacers swingman Marquis Daniels and former Pacer Jimmie Hunter were with Jackson at the club during the fight but not charged.

At the time, Jackson was on probation for his role in a brawl between Indiana Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans in 2004. Jackson pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault and battery charges in September 2005 for his role in the 2004 brawl.

A Michigan judge ruled that the Indiana charges constituted a violation of Jackson's probation. Jackson, who was traded earlier this year, faces up to 30 days in jail on the probation violation.

Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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