Once Jailed for Road Rage, Florida Man Is Victim of It

Gary Lynn Durham was on probation until 2017, but didn't live to see it end. The Florida man, who had served a decade in prison in connection with a 2001 road-rage incident that ended in a man's death, was himself killed in what police say was another case of road rage. The 40-year-old reportedly stopped his Mazda pickup in the middle of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Plant City early Wednesday morning, and Robert Padgett pulled up behind him. Why isn't clear, but what is clear is that an argument escalated, and Padgett shot Durham. Responders to the scene found the 42-year-old, who had called 911, giving Durham CPR, but he died on the scene, reports WFTS. Police are calling the death "the end result of a road rage incident," reports the Tampa Bay Times.

On the earlier incident, the AP and St. Petersburg Times reported Durham and Timothy James Gibbs argued after their two cars nearly collided on Oct. 24, 2001. The two traded hand gestures while driving, then ended up in a parking lot, where a single punch landed Gibbs on the ground. Durham left the scene, and Gibbs succumbed to a brain hemorrhage and skull fracture nine days later. The prosecutor said Gibbs' hands were by his side when he was hit. Durham was convicted of manslaughter the following year and released from prison in 2012. No charges have been filed against Padgett pending a review of the case. What Gibbs' widow had to say to WFLA: "I know it’s not the Christian thing to say, but this is poetic justice." (This judge handed out an odd sentence in another road-rage case.)