TORRANCE, Calif., Feb. 13 (UPI) — A Southern California man faces up to 11 years in prison for fatally punching and kicking a New Jersey businessman who laughed at him in a sandwich shop.
A jury convicted Ronald Murray II of voluntary manslaughter Monday, while acquitting him of second-degree murder in the death of Mun Jang, The Daily Breeze of Torrance reported. The 26-year-old Gardena man could have been sentenced to 15 years to life on the more serious charge.
Jang, 56, who was in Los Angeles on a business trip in 2011, encountered Murray during a 3 a.m. visit to a sandwich shop, Donut King. Witnesses said Jang laughed when some of the meat fell from Murray’s pastrami sandwich.
Murray tried to convince jurors he acted in self-defense. Murray testified at his trial in Torrance that he slipped on the pastrami, fell to the floor and saw Jang standing over him with clenched fists.
But jurors apparently believed prosecutors who said Murray knocked Jang down and then kicked him in the head.
“Somebody lost his life because he laughed and had a normal human reaction to something that was pretty funny,” Deputy Los Angeles District Attorney Jennifer Turk said. “It could have been anybody standing there.”
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