HOUSTON (October 2, 2012)--Jurors in Harris County have convicted a man accused of punching a high school soccer coach who later died after his head hit the pavement of misdemeanor assault.
Ronald Newman, 53, was found guilty Monday in the January 2011 attack on Stratford High's Christopher Matthews and was sentenced to one year in jail.
Matthews, 33, the school’s girls’ soccer coach, was celebrating a victory at a restaurant with friends, colleagues and his wife.
He was walking the mother of one of the team members to her car when the woman's husband, Newman, confronted him.
Newman punched Matthews, who died at the hospital days after losing consciousness.
Newman's wife requested a restraining order against her husband in 2002 after a "family violence" incident.
