Former pub manager pleads guilty in airman's death

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A former Buffalo pub manager whose murder conviction was set aside has pleaded guilty in the death of a 28-year-old bar patron who died months after being pushed down a flight of stairs.

Jeffrey Basil pleaded guilty to manslaughter Tuesday in state Supreme Court in Buffalo in a plea agreement that will let him avoid another murder trial.

In exchange, he faces 15 to 21 years in prison.

The 37-year-old Basil could have received 25 years to life in prison had he been re-tried in the death last year of Air National Guardsman William Sager Jr.

A jury found Basil guilty of murder in January, but a judge last month set the verdict aside after Basil's lawyers argued that one of the jurors concealed information about herself during jury selection.

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