Judge weighs 2 decades in prison for ex-cop's fatal shooting

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A white former South Carolina police officer committed second-degree murder when he shot an unarmed black motorist to death and should expect to spend about two decades in prison, a judge said Thursday as he prepared to sentence the ex-officer for a federal civil rights violation.

U.S. District Judge David Norton had to decide whether Michael Slager's shooting of Walter Scott in April 2015 was manslaughter or murder before he sentences the ex-officer. After he found that the shooting was murder, the judge said he'd work from guidelines that recommend Slager spend 19 to 24 years in prison.

A formal sentence was expected later Thursday, after the judge hears testimony from Scott's family and friends.