A Jacksonville man who originally faced a 120-year prison sentence for firing two shots in the air that didn't hit anyone walked out of the Duval County Courthouse a free man Friday morning.

Circuit Judge Jack Schemer sentenced Randal Ratledge, 58, to the 117 days he's already served in jail. Ratledge was fingerprinted and then walked out of the courthouse with his wife and about a dozen friends who showed up to support him.

Ratledge was originally charged with six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he fired two shots outside his home when there were six people nearby. Jurors acquitted him of two of the charges and reduced the other four to misdemeanor counts of improper exhibition of a firearm.

Schemer combined them into one, saying the law didn't allow four separate convictions under those charges. In the end, Ratledge was convicted of only one misdemeanor count of improper exhibition of a firearm.

If he'd been convicted of the original charges, Ratledge would have faced 120 years in prison based on the law and appellate court precedents in place at the time. With the reduced charges, Ratledge faced up to a year locked up.

Assistant State Attorney Peter Overstreet argued he should be in jail because the people outside when Ratledge fired the gun feared for their lives, while defense attorney William Sheppard said he had suffered enough and should be allowed to go home.

Schemer sided with Sheppard, but did not give a reason for his sentence.

According to police reports, Ratledge was talking with friends and neighbors outside his home in August 2012 when he went into the house and came back with a gun. He fired two shots, but there's some dispute about whether he fired one in the air or at the group, and then pointed the gun at one of the people before he was tackled and the gun was wrestled away.

Witnesses said Ratledge appeared intoxicated, and his neighbors and wife all said they'd never seen him that way.

Sheppard and fellow defense attorney Bryan DeMaggio argued that Ratledge wasn't drunk but was instead "involuntarily intoxicated" because he had a few drinks during the course of the night and then took an Ambien to help him sleep when he went inside.

The Ambien reacted badly with the alcohol and led to the shots being fired, defense attorneys said.

Ratledge has said he has no memory of firing the shots.

Ambien is usually used to help someone sleep, often to help people suffering from insomnia.

Ratledge is an Army veteran who hurt his back when he jumped out of a plane during a military maneuver and ended up grabbing someone else whose parachute would not open. DeMaggio said the pain is chronic, and Ratledge must take the medication, including the Ambien, to deal with it.

When Ratledge spoke to Schemer on Friday before his sentence was imposed, he said he hadn't had a drink since that night and was also now refusing to take any pain medication.

"I've learned a lot in the last few years," Ratledge said. "I was very naive with the medications I was taking."

Ratledge said the Department of Veterans Affairs had overprescribed pain medication for him and after his arrest other doctors were shocked at how many painkillers he was taking. Ratledge also apologized to the people who felt terrorized that night, although none who testified against him showed up for the sentencing.

"If my neighbors were here, I'd apologize to them," he said. "The night of the incident, that wasn't me."

Ratledge's wife and several friends testified on his behalf and argued against further prison time for him.

Allan Galliher, who allowed Ratledge and his wife to move in with him when he wasn't permitted to return to his house after the shooting, also said Ratledge has suffered enough.

"His sentence has far exceeded what it should have been," Galliher said. "He wasn't in his right mind when he did this."

Roger Pruitt used to be neighbors with Ratledge. He said Ratledge and his wife were excellent neighbors who could be counted on to help other people.

He remembered one time when his wife was in the hospital and Ratledge checked up on him every day, mowed his lawn and brought him some food.

Overstreet declined to comment after Schemer imposed his sentence.

Ratledge was previously convicted of the six counts of aggravated assault, but that conviction was thrown out before sentencing when Circuit Judge James Daniel ruled that his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination was violated during the trial.

Officer C.R. Deal, who questioned Ratledge the night he fired the shots, testified in front of the jury that Ratledge told him "he made a mistake and that he did not want to talk about the incident."

Daniel found that the comment unfairly prejudiced the jury since they knew Ratledge had invoked his right to remain silent, and exercising that right should not be held against a criminal defendant.

At the time of the trial, it was believed that Ratledge would be required to serve 20 years back to back for each conviction if the jury convicted him of the original charges because the 1st District Court of Appeal had ruled that 10-20-Life convictions must be served consecutively, and not concurrently.

The law requires that anyone convicted of a crime involving the firing of a gun gets at least 20 years in prison for each criminal count, with the only exception being someone who fired a warning shot when they have a legitimate reason to feel threatened. The law requires a 10-year prison sentence when someone uses a gun during the commission of a crime, but doesn't fire the weapon.

This month the Florida Supreme Court overruled the 1st District and said 10-20-Life rulings can be served concurrently, and the decision on whether a sentence is concurrent or consecutive is up to the trial judge.

Sheppard said it was a good ruling but wouldn't have mattered much to Ratledge because at his age he would have likely died in prison even if the sentence was 20 years. He said he has a broken back, diabetes, knee problems and several skin cancer surgeries that made it unlikely that he could have survived a long sentence.

Larry Hannan: (904) 359-4470