Man gets up to 20 years in fatal traffic stop shooting

By Cara McCoy

Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010 | 10:59 a.m.

A man who shot and killed another man stopped in traffic was sentenced today to eight to 20 years in prison.

Ralph Fuller, 51, pleaded guilty in November to voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon in the shooting death of Michael McDaniels, who was found in the driver's seat of his vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds at about 8:48 a.m. Dec. 16, 2008, near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Owens Avenue.

Before his sentence was handed down, an emotional Fuller apologized to his family and to McDaniels’ family.

“I’d like to apologize to the family for the grief this has caused them. I’d also like to say to my family that I’m sorry for what this has brought on us as a family,” he said during a sentencing hearing today in front of District Court Judge Elissa Cadish.

Fuller and McDaniels had an ongoing dispute over drugs and money owed to McDaniels. Shortly before Fuller shot McDaniels, McDaniels had fired gunshots at the North Las Vegas home where Fuller’s family lived and had left Fuller a threatening phone message, court records indicate.

Fuller said today he shot McDaniels because he feared for his family’s safety.

“I was scared for everybody that lived in our household,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

At the time of the shooting, witnesses at the scene told police McDaniels was in his vehicle waiting to go westbound on Owens when a man who was also stuck in traffic left a white vehicle, walked up to the victim's vehicle and fired multiple shots into the driver's seat.

McDaniels was pronounced dead at University Medical Center. Before he was taken to the hospital, officers found a loaded Ruger .357 revolver in McDaniels’ jacket pocket loaded with six cartridges and records show that gun was linked to the shooting at the Fuller residence.

Police learned that McDaniels had allegedly given Fuller about $6,000 to purchase cocaine. Fuller didn’t deliver the cocaine or return the money, police said, which caused McDaniels to become enraged and fire at Fuller’s mother’s home, the report says.

Cell phone records linked Fuller to the crime.

Fuller initially had been charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon. He was arrested about two weeks after the crime on Jan. 5, 2009.