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Bubba Gump Road-Rager Plea
Life is like a box of chocolates...You never know when one might pull out a gun and threaten to whack you.
Just ask Forrest Gump star Mykelti Williamson. A .357 Magnum-wielding motorist who targeted the actor in a highly publicized road-rage incident last May, pleaded guilty to possessing a loaded gun on Tuesday.
Per the terms of his plea bargain, Ernesto Diaz, 24, of Los Angeles, could face up to 16 months in state prison at his Jan. 13 sentencing, though he'll be eligible for probation. In return for his admission of guilt to the weapon charge, prosecutors dismissed four other counts--including assault with a firearm and making criminal threats.
Although Williamson, who played Tom Hanks' shrimp-happy pal Bubba in the Oscar-winning 1993 movie, was a material witness in the case, he was a no-show at the preliminary hearing at the Torrance Courthouse in suburban Los Angeles.
According to the Torrance DailyBreeze, because Williamson was MIA, prosecutors opted to cut a deal, believing it would be too difficult to prove Diaz's guilt on the other four charges without the actor's testimony.
The confrontation took place on May 3, when Williamson was cruising down the 105 Freeway and apparently swerved in front of Diaz, forcing him to break, according to the police report.
Diaz began tailing the 45-year-old actor and, the police report said, flashed gang signs and hurled racial epithets at Williamson.
Williamson exited the highway and pulled over, hoping to allow Diaz to pass. But instead, Diaz allegedly parked his sport utility vehicle right behind Williamson, exited the vehicle and pointed a .357 Magnum revolver in the actor's face.
Williamson managed to pull away, with Diaz still in pursuit. Eventually the actor got Diaz's license plate number and called the cops, who arrested Diaz.
In a TV interview after the incident, Williamson said Diaz was "completely out of control" and suggested the confrontation could have ended badly had two female witnesses not been in the vicinity.
Judge Laura C. Ellison apparently agreed. During Tuesday's hearing, she told lawyers for both sides that she reluctantly accepted the plea deal "because of the prosecution's problem with the witness," according to the Daily Breeze.
Diaz's attorney, Richard A. Leonard, was unavailable for comment. But in court he described the incident as a "mutual combat"-type situation that frequently occurs in road-rage situations.
After dreaming up a thousand kind of shrimp dishes as Private Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue in Forrest Gump, which garnered him an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Breakthrough Performance, Williamson has gone on to appear in several films, including How to Make An American Quilt, Heat, Waiting to Exhale, Three Kings, Ali, The Assassination of Richard Nixon and After the Sunset. He also starred in the defunct NBC series Boomtown.
He recently completed work on the independent film Fatwa and has two other films in the pipeline for 2006, according to IMDb.com.
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