LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former high school football coach from Florida has been ordered to serve three months in jail and pay a $5,000 fine in the one-punch death of a Utah man at a Las Vegas casino.
A judge on Thursday also said 39-year-old Benjamin Gerard Hawkins of Gainesville must serve five years of probation, undergo impulse-control and anger management counseling, and abstain from alcohol after his conviction for involuntary manslaughter.
The judge initially sentenced Hawkins to between one and two years in the Nevada Department of Corrections but immediately suspended the sentence in favor of probation.
Hawkins has remained free after his November conviction in the death of 46-year-old John Massie, who Hawkins said derided him with racial comments. The single punch thrown by Hawkins was captured on security video.