BATON ROUGE — A district judge said Monday he wouldn't impose a longer prison term on the man convicted of killing a panhandler in the Trader Joe's parking lot four years ago.

Prosecutors had said Jace Boyd's 18-month prison term was too short and asked Judge Brad Myers to consider a longer sentence. Myers refused.

Boyd had faced up to 40 years in prison for manslaughter. After his sentencing, District Attorney Hillar Moore III said Boyd had shown no remorse for killing Danny Buckley, 61, and "a longer period of incarceration was warranted."

At Boyd's sentencing, Myers said it was unlikely that Boyd would kill again. Boyd's lawyer noted jurors had rejected a second-degree murder charge that carries a life term.

Boyd has said he felt Buckley was a threat to him and others, but prosecutors argued to Myers that others had testified at Boyd's trial that they believed Buckley posed no theat.

"Testimony at trial showed that Jace Boyd decided to kill Danny Buckley, an unarmed and physically harmless man, within 5 seconds of calling his name," prosecutors wrote in seeking a longer sentence.

Buckley's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Boyd.