Lancaster killer who faced possible life in prison pleads guilty

Michael Brent Gay, 35, pleaded guilty late last week in criminal court in Lancaster to voluntary manslaughter, according to published reports.

Prosecutors had already started a trial seeking a murder conviction against Gay in the death of Joshua Flint McManus, 40, who was killed in December 2015, after an argument between the two men.

The trial went through two days of prosecution witnesses. Gay agreed to plead guilty before the case went to the jury, court records show. Gay was sentenced to 30 years in prison, the maximum in South Carolina for a voluntary manslaughter conviction.