NY bar manager sentenced for fatally pushing airman down stairs
BUFFALO, N.Y. - A former Buffalo bar manager has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for shoving a patron down a flight of stairs and causing his death.
Jeffrey Basil apologized as he was sentenced Wednesday in state Supreme Court, where he pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter.
The 37-year-old Basil was convicted of murdering New York Air National Guardsman William Sager Jr., but his conviction was set aside after Basil's lawyers argued that one of the jurors concealed information about her military service during jury selection.
Basil took a plea deal instead of facing another trial, CBS affliate WIVB reported. The station says he was the manager of Molly's Pub at the time of the incident.
Sager's fiancee, Erika Webster, spoke at the sentencing hearing, asking for the maximum 21-year sentence.
Prosecutors say Basil pushed the 28-year-old Sager backward down stairs at the pub early in May 2014, causing his death from head trauma two months later.