FAQ

During the fight, Billy-Joe pulls a switch-blade on Cameron. Cameron responds by striking Billy-Joe in the nose, causing him to die from blunt-force trauma to the head. When Billy-Joe's friends flee the scene, one of them grabs the switch-blade off the ground. Therefore making a self-defence case difficult to prove. As the only witness Cameron had was his wife Trisha and even she ran off to get Dale the bartender before Billy-Joe pulled the knife, therefore she didn't witness what happened. There's also the fact that Cameron easily could have gotten in the car and driven away but instead he chose to engage in a fight with Billy-Joe. However, choosing to get in a fight is one thing, killing a man who was attempting to kill you after getting in the fight is another.

During his trial, Cameron refused to plead guilty. However, his lawyer gives him poor advice, stating that he risked getting 10 years if the case went to trial and he lost. But by admitting to it, he'd only get 4 years and serve maybe a year for good behaviour. This was likely a plea deal with the prosecutor, but the judge ignored it. So when he plead guilty, the judge seemingly decided to make an example out of Cameron, believing that Cameron, being a former Army Ranger didn't think the normal rules of society applied to him and that he is trained to respond with deadly force, therefore making him a danger to society and therefore gave him a sentence of 7-10 years.