LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville jury Friday convicted a man in the deaths of two men in a 2021 fatal double shooting at a Roosters restaurant in Okolona and recommended that he spend 17 years in prison. 

The jury convicted Karson Reitz of two counts of manslaughter and one count of wanton endangerment after he opened fire in the crowded restaurant in December 2021. 

A judge will formally sentence Reitz on February 13.

Reitz was charged with shooting 48-year-old Michael Miller and 51-year-old Bradley Cross at the Preston Highway Roosters location on Dec. 23, 2021. Reitz's first trial ended in a mistrial in November 2023. 

According to court documents, Reitz was seen on surveillance video shooting the two men inside the crowded dining room. A bartender who witnessed the incident said the restaurant was packed that night and that there was a fistfight between Reitz and Miller before the shooting.

An arrest report for Reitz said he knew both victims. The bartender told WDRB News that Reitz, his dad and the Miller family were regulars at the Okolona restaurant.

During the trial, the defense said Reitz shot Miller after Miller allegedly knocked his father out and one of the four bullets hit Cross by mistake. 

He had been on home incarceration but, after the guilty verdict, he was taken into custody and his bond was revoked. 

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