A man was convicted of passion provocation manslaughter in the stabbing death of another man after a street fight in New Jersey during celebrations over the Philadelphia Eagles' victory in the Super Bowl last year.
Jurors acquitted Supreme Life of murder Friday after six hours of deliberation but convicted the Lumberton resident of manslaughter and also of attempted murder in the stabbing of a second man in February 2018, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Life, 57, a former landscaper and Army veteran formerly known as Charles Hoskins, testified that as people were outside celebrating the Eagles' win, he teased his son, a Dallas Cowboys fan, and his son responded with an epithet about the Eagles.
He said the remark was overheard by two New York men driving by after leaving a Super Bowl party in the neighborhood, and the two men attacked his son. He said he was only trying to help his son and stabbed 26-year-old Moriah Walker, of Brooklyn, in self-defense.
Life's son, Antoine Ketler, 33, was also charged, but a judge dismissed the murder charge and jurors acquitted him of attempted murder. Defense attorney Anthony Aldorasi argued that his client didn't have a knife and only took part in the fistfight.
Life, also convicted of stabbing Walker's 23-year-old friend from Queens in the abdomen during the fight, is to be sentenced in May.
