Country singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver pleads no contest to gun charge from Texas shooting
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WACO, Texas (AP) — Texas country singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver has been fined $1,000 after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor gun charge.
The charge arose from a 2007 shooting outside a Waco-area saloon. In April, a jury acquitted the 70-year-old Shaver of aggravated assault in the wounding of Billy Coker outside the saloon near Lorena. Shaver contended he shot Coker in self-defense.
He pleaded no contest to the gun charge for allegedly having a .22-caliber pistol in the bar, which is illegal. He agreed to forfeit of the gun.
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Shaver rose to country music stardom in the 1970s. The self-styled "Honky Tonk Hero" recorded more than 20 albums and wrote "Georgia on a Fast Train" and "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be a Diamond Someday)."