-
Rice
Rice
A former boxer that reportedly assaulted a Port Arthur woman by shooting her in the face was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Sept. 18 in front of Jefferson County 252nd District Court Judge Raquel West. John Fitzgerald Rice, 58, pleaded guilty to the aggravated assault that occurred in March 2022, and faced sentencing by the judge to span anywhere from probation to up to 12 years in prison.
Letters of support provided by the defense asserted that Rice was a valuable upstanding citizen; the prosecutor strenuously disagreed.
Under oath, Rice addressed the court by reporting that he is gainfully employed by training professional boxers, although he is currently disabled. An altercation at a gas station spurred the incident Rice was pleading guilty to, he said, although he wasn’t involved in the first confrontation.
“All the sudden, here they come… with (the victim) leading the pack,” Rice said. According to Rice, he did have a firearm, but did not discharge the weapon; instead, he said, Rice used the butt of the gun to strike the woman in the face.
No ballistics could be performed on the weapon, the prosecution pointed out, since Rice admitted discarding the weapon after the altercation.
“He goes and throws this gun into the canal in Port Arthur,” prosecutor Luke Nichols said. “The weapon was never recovered.”
Nichols argued for at least 10 years in prison.
“Somebody brought a gun to a fistfight, and someone was almost killed,” he said, adding that Rice’s criminal record is littered with assaults, both misdemeanor and felony.
“From beginning to end, you handled it all the wrong way,” Judge West ruled in handing down a 10-year prison sentence. West also found that a deadly weapon was used, which requires Rice to serve at least half of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.