Okay, so I have a victim who is the only witness to the stabbing from defendant. At the time, the victim was intoxicated, uncooperative, and hesitant when questioned by the police. The detective obtained a statement from victim the following day after he got out of surgery.

The victim has made statements to 2 individuals who know the defendant contradicting what he told the detective. The defense attorney obtained singed affidavits from these witnesses and are willing to testify in court. Both of these witnesses have RAP sheets. The defendant has a prior TDC trip for Burg. of Hab. and was sentenced to 3 years. This is an enhancement case to a 1st degree punishment range.

I offered the defendant 5 yrs TDC, but he declined any plea involving a TDC sentence. I spoke with victim and he is willing to testify, but I have doubts about his credibility before a jury due to the statements be made to these 2 defense witnesses and the fact that he was intoxicated at the time he spoke with the responding officers and under medication when he spoke with the detective.

This is my first felony case and although I believe my victim, I am just stuck with whether I should just take it to trial and chance it or offer probation and still obtain a conviction.

Any advice from veteran prosecutors?

What about a deferred adjudication? Maybe in the 6-8 year range. You get a guilty plea, and your guy is supervised for at least that many years. And you have a HUGE hammer if he violates his terms and conditions, since you have the first degree punishment range available. Just a thought.

I was thinking offering probation w/ a finding of a deadly weapon, so if he violates the conditions of probation, then he goes up to TDC and will have to do most of his sentence before he is eligible for parole. Thanks.

I like the deferred option better in a case like his, since your max sentence on a straight probation would be 10 years, but on a deferred, you can get any sentence in the first degree range of punishment on a violation - like a 50 year sentence.

Oh wow! I did not know that. I will look into deferred instead then. Thank you so much.

Deferred is your only means of supervision with a deadly weapon. See art. 42A.054