Miami man who fatally shot Daytona motorcyclist in road rage incident sentenced to 20 years

A Miami man who fatally shot a Daytona Beach motorcyclist in a road rage incident two years ago, will spend the next two decades in prison, court documents showed on Thursday.

Ricardo Allen Gibbs, 37, was initially charged with first-degree premeditated murder when he was arrested in September 2022 for the shooting death of Tomas Lee Bouknight, 25. Documents filed in open court Thursday show the murder charge was changed to manslaughter with a firearm.

Gibbs pleaded no contest to the manslaughter charge.

Gibbs, who was out on $100,000 bail, was re-arrested after being sentenced to 20 years in a Florida Department of Corrections prison, documents filed in open court noted.

Daytona Beach police said that on Sept. 24, 2022, Gibbs shot Bouknight in a road rage incident that took place in the 900 block of Vine Street in Daytona Beach.

Gibbs told police that Bouknight had cut him off at a four-way stop intersection at Brentwood Drive and Vine Street, and then headed north on Vine Street and gave him the finger as he sped by, his arrest report states.

Gibbs said he also traveled north on Vine Street and came upon Bouknight stopped in the middle of the road. He told police that as he passed Bouknight, the victim yelled at him and lifted up his shirt to show a gun, the report said.

Gibbs said he then reached for his licensed firearm in his waist as he heard gunfire and shot at the victim from the driver's side window of his car, the arrest report detailed.

But a witness reported seeing Gibbs arguing with Bouknight and then firing at the motorcyclist, investigators said.

A surveillance recording from the Yvonne Scarlett Golden Cultural and Education Center at 1000 Vine Street corroborated the witness's statement, police said.

Daytona Beach police reviewed video footage that showed Gibbs speeding past Bouknight's motorcycle while northbound on Vine Street.

Gibbs then stopped in the roadway and a few seconds later Bouknight fell from his motorcycle, the footage showed.

"Although the footage is from a distance, it does not appear as though the victim produces a firearm and no muzzle flash can be observed," investigators wrote in their report.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Miami man who fatally shot Daytona motorcyclist in road rage incident sentenced to 20 years