Man acquitted in death of Rice basketball player

BRYAN, Texas (AP) -A former Marine has been acquitted in the stabbing death of a Rice University basketball player during a 2007 fight outside a Texas bar.

Ronald Andrew Johnson was found not guilty Wednesday in Jonathan Bailey's death and of the aggravated assault of Bailey's twin brother, Janson.

Defense attorneys said Johnson stabbed the brothers to save his brother, who was being beaten by the twins outside a bar in College Station.

Prosecutors argued that it was a typical bar fight and that Johnson escalated it by pulling out a knife.

Jonathan Bailey transferred from Texas State and was a walk-on sophomore basketball player for Rice, located in Houston. In his first season of eligibility with the Owls, he played 10 minutes over four games, scoring four points.

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Information from: The Bryan-College Station Eagle, http://www.theeagle.com and The Beaumont Enterprise, http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/