Singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver said Wednesday the stress of assault and weapons charges hanging over his head worsened his heart condition, put him in the hospital recently and, perhaps worst of all, kept him from writing a song for the past three years.

“This has been so emotional. It is hard not to be bitter, and I’m not going to write any bitter songs,” Shaver said after his final court appearance Wednesday on the gun charge.

Asked what song he would write now that his legal problems are behind him, Shaver thought for a moment and said, “I guess I’ll go to hell instead of going to jail.”

Billy Joe Shaver leaves the McLennan County Courthouse on Wednesday.
Jerry Larson/Tribune-Herald

Jail is exactly what the 70-year-old self-styled “honky-tonk hero” avoided.

Shaver entered a no-contest plea to a Class A misdemeanor charge of unlawfully carrying a weapon in a March 2007 incident at Papa Joe’s Saloon near Lorena in which Shaver shot Billy Coker in the face.

Felony charge reduced

Prosecutor Mark Parker reduced a third-degree felony charge of carrying a pistol by a licensed person in a licensed premises to the misdemeanor count. The plea agreement with Shaver also called for him to forfeit the Derringer-style, .22-caliber pistol he used to shoot Coker.

Retired State District Judge George Allen also fined Shaver $1,000 as part of the plea agreement.

Shaver’s attorney, Dick DeGuerin, of Houston, said the Grammy-nominated Central Texas artist accepted the plea deal because “he just wanted to get it over with and put it all behind him.”

A 54th State District Court jury acquitted Shaver of aggravated assault in April, finding that he acted in self-defense after he and Coker, who had displayed a knife in the bar most of the evening, got into an argument at the bar.

Shaver testified that Coker set everyone on edge by stirring his drinks with a lock-blade knife and challenged him to come outside after the two exchanged words.

Coker said his knife was in his pocket and he was standing still when Shaver asked him, “Where do you want it?” and then shot him. The bullet still is lodged in his neck, Coker said.

Shaver denied he asked Coker that, saying he asked him, “Why do you want to do this?”

Shaver testified he thought Coker had his knife in his hand and lunged toward Shaver on the back patio. Shaver fired a shot because he was afraid for his life, he said.

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

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