Evan Potts, who was accused of killing Ian Sharinn with his Nissan Altima in a road rage incident in Long Beach in 2009, was acquitted of second-degree manslaughter charges. However Potts, who was 22 at the time of the incident, was convicted of criminally negligent homicide, and faces four years in prison at his sentencing on August 16, ABC 7 reports. At the time, a witness described that Potts ran over Sharinn "like a cat in the road…I heard his head rattling in the undercarriage."
According to Patch, Potts's attorneys sought to portray his clients actions as self-defense. 34-year-old Sharinn had followed Potts aggressively before he blocked Potts's car with his 1978 Porsche and was banging on Potts's hood, thus "it was justified conduct to save himself." ADA Brendan Ahern argued that Potts had no right to take Sharinn's life: "Was it like a man was pointing a gun at his head? No way…Ian Sharron didn't have a gun. He didn't have a knife. He didn't have his hands around his neck." Potts remains free on $500,000 bail pending his sentencing.
