A Lake Charles man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in November just as jurors were being seated for his murder trial has received credit for time served and will receive no additional jail time.

Judge Kendrick J. Guidry made the ruling in the Joey Julian case Monday morning in 14th Judicial District Court. Julian has remained out on bond since February 2020.

The Baton Rouge man agreed to a plea deal in November for shooting 38-year-old Ernest Samuel Miller multiple times on the afternoon of Nov. 8, 2017, at the corner of Mill and Ryan streets in downtown Lake Charles.

After the shooting, then-Lake Charles Police Deputy Chief Mark Kraus told the American Press that Julian fled in a local resident’s vehicle before being apprehended by Louisiana State Police troopers on Interstate 10 just east of the Atchafalaya Basin bridge. Kraus said at the time that Miller and Julian were acquaintances.

Miller sustained two bullet wounds, “one to his arm and one that traveled through his back, and I believe that one pierced his heart,” Lake Charles Police Det. Willie Fontenot testified at Julian’s 2018 bond hearing.

Julian’s defense attorneys, Todd Clemons and Adam Johnson, previously told the American Press that Julian killed Miller “but he did not murder him. Joey Julian acted in self-defense.”