WACO, Texas (AP) _ Country singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver has been fined $1,000 after pleading “no contest” to a misdemeanor gun charge.
That charge arose from a 2007 shooting outside a Waco-area saloon. In April, a McLennan County jury acquitted the 70-year-old Shaver of aggravated assault in the wounding of Billy Coker outside the saloon near Lorena. Shaver contended he shot Coker in self-defense.
However, he did possess the small .22-caliber pistol inside the bar, so he agreed to plead “no contest” to a misdemeanor and agreed to the fine and forfeiture of the gun.
Shaver, who lives in Waco, rose to country music stardom in the 1970s. The self-styled “Honky Tonk Hero” recorded more than 20 albums and wrote “Georgia on a Fast Train” and “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be a Diamond Someday).”