Two sentenced for knife assault
Posted on Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Two Fayetteville men with extensive criminal histories admitted to attacking a man with a knife, and they each agreed to serve 14 years in prison.
Troy Wright, 42, and Leslie Orlando Blackburn, 43, pleaded guilty on Monday to first-degree battery and to parole violations.
Both were sentenced to 20 years: 14 years in the Department of Correction and six years suspended.
Wright and Blackburn are accused on Aug. 27 of assaulting a man with a knife as the man was walking to a friend's apartment on Bedford Loop at about 1 a.m.
After being approached by the two suspects, the victim told police that Wright began yelling in his face, asking if he "had a death wish." The accuser told the suspect to calm down, at which point Wright allegedly brandished a knife and cut his arm, according to the police report.
Wright was on parole for a second-degree battery conviction from 2006. He was accused in that case of punching a man, knocking him to the ground and causing a subdural hematoma, bruising on both sides of his brain and a fractured skull
Both men have extensive criminal records with a history of violence, officials said.
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