Joshua Walton won’t be going to state prison for striking and killing a Kansas University student who had been walking across Kentucky Street in 2006, a Douglas County jury decided Monday.

Walton instead will face up to two years in a county jail sentence and up to a $5,000 fine after being convicted of two misdemeanors: vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an injury accident.

The conviction is for the Sept. 23, 2006, hit-and-run death of KU student Ryan Kanost.

Prosecutors had sought a conviction on two felonies: involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and leaving the scene of a fatality accident. If found guilty, Walton could have been sentenced to prison for more than three years.

“While we’re happy with the outcome, this is not a victory for Josh Walton or for us,” said Tom Bath, Walton’s attorney, after jurors reached the verdict following 11 hours of deliberations that started Friday. “He’s very sad, (and) feels a lot of guilt and remorse over the loss of another person’s life. : He was prepared to take whatever punishment that the jury decided he should get.”

Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson, who met with members of Kanost’s family after the verdict, said he remained confident his office was correct in taking the case to trial.

Branson conceded that getting a felony conviction would require the jury to decide that Walton either had been driving under the influence or had been grossly negligent in operating a motor vehicle.

“Anytime you have a DUI case where you do not have blood results or breath results, that makes those cases difficult,” the district attorney said.

The accident occurred in the early-morning hours as Kanost walked across Kentucky Street at 13th Street. After Kanost was hit, Walton drove off to meet friends, telling them he thought he had hit something but didn’t know what it had been.

Walton went to the police station the next day, after hearing Kanost had been killed on Kentucky Street.

“We’re always going to take these cases to trial,” Branson said after the verdict. “We’re always going to let the jury decide the accountability factor for the defendant in these cases. And in this case, they chose vehicular homicide : and that’s something that we’ll have to deal with and live with.”

Branson said he would seek the maximum possible jail term and fine when Walton is sentenced at 10:30 a.m. March 24. Each charge Walton was found guilty of carries a fine of up to $2,500 and a jail term of up one year.

Robert Dewhirst, who served as jury foreman, said jurors faced a difficult task in weighing the varying testimony of different eyewitnesses.

“Everybody knew what happened,” Dewhirst said of the witnesses. “Nobody was really clear on exactly what happened, so we had to make a lot of inferences.”