A Baldwin County judge has spared a retired state conservation officer from prison time following his conviction earlier this year in a road rage shooting near Orange Beach. Steven Pinson, 56, of Ono Island was found guilty in April of second-degree assault for shooting another driver during a confrontation that began on the Perdido Pass Bridge in August 2012.
Circuit Judge Jody Bishop sentenced Pinson this week to a 10-year suspended sentence along with three years of supervised probation. As part of the sentence, Pinson must complete 250 hours of community service, pay a $1,000 fine and contribute $200 toward the state’s crime victim compensation fund. A separate restitution amount will be determined later.
Prosecutors had pushed for a harsher outcome, with the assistant district attorney handling the case asking the court to impose five years of incarceration. According to the prosecutor, the judge explained that he didn’t believe sending Pinson to prison would serve any real purpose, citing letters submitted on Pinson’s behalf and testimony from character witnesses presented at trial. The judge indicated he didn’t expect to see Pinson back in court for any future violations.
The man who was shot, identified as a 46-year-old McCalla resident, had hoped for a prison sentence and was disappointed by the outcome, the prosecutor said, though he ultimately accepted the judge’s ruling.
According to police accounts presented during the case, the confrontation began when the victim was driving below the speed limit on the bridge, prompting an exchange of rude gestures between the two men. At one point, Pinson pulled in front of the other driver’s vehicle and hit the brakes. The situation escalated after both men stopped near the intersection of Alabama 182 and Alabama 161, where the victim got out of his car and approached Pinson’s truck. Following a heated exchange of words, Pinson shot the man in the chest with a hollow-point round fired from a .380-caliber handgun.
One of Pinson’s attorneys said the judge found that neither man had acted responsibly that day, placing some measure of responsibility on the victim’s own conduct during the confrontation. The defense team described the sentence as appropriate given the full circumstances of the case and said they were grateful for the outcome.
During the trial, Pinson’s legal team had argued that he feared for his safety in the moments before the shooting and that his actions were justified under Alabama’s stand your ground law, though the argument did not prevent a conviction on the assault charge.