[1]Jose F. Chagolla Flores and his lawyer face a judge in Lewis County Superior Court
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Eighteen-year-old Jose F. Chagolla Flores of Onalaska is off to prison today, with an 18-month sentence for stabbing another teenager who punched him in the face in the Chehalis Wal-Mart’s parking lot.
Instead of going to trial, charged with first-degree assault, Chagolla Flores entered into a plea deal with prosecutors.
Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead told the judge the reason: It was a case of possible self defense.
“There is evidence the victim was the aggressor,” Halstead said.
Halstead’s comments came on Tuesday morning in Lewis County Superior Court in front of Judge Andrew Toynbee.
Exactly what a group of young people were doing there the night of Oct. 5 is uncertain. Chehalis police were called about two males fighting but when officers arrived they were gone.
Seventeen-year-old Bryce Friedley of Chehalis turned up at Providence Centralia Hospital and was transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Chagolla Flores pleaded guilty to second-degree assault on Nov. 30, a felony with a standard sentencing range of three to nine months. But he pleaded guilty to the committing the crime with a deadly weapon, which means 12 more months.
Defense attorney Chris Baum told the judge it was a tough case in many ways, one in which everyone could acknowledge there was “bad blood.”
The victim’s mother tearfully addressed the court, her voice breaking as she described the trip to the trauma center in Seattle and the hours-long wait before she finally saw her son, on life support.
She addressed the defendant, telling him choices have consequences.
“You chose to use that knife as self defense,” she said. “That choice could have cost you my son’s life. I pray you learn to do better.”
Judge Toynbee pointed out that if Chagolla Flores had gone to trial and been convicted as originally charged he would have been facing a possible sentence of nine years plus nine months.
“Now we’re looking at 15 to 20 months,” he said.
“The injury to Mr. Friedley was so significant,” Toynbee said. “But I can’t isolate that from the facts of this case.”
Judge Toynbee chose the middle of the standard sentencing range, six months, plus an additional 12 months for the weapon enhancement.
Chagolla Flores will be subject to 18 months of community custody after his release. And the judge ordered no contact with the victim for 10 years.
The Oct. 5 episode was followed a week later with several of the victim’s family and friends arrested for allegedly taking baseball bats to Chagolla Flores’s 19-year-old friend in Adna. Then in mid-November, Friedley and his brother were arrested for allegedly being two of four males who initiated an armed encounter with other teenagers near Penny Playground in Chehalis.
Prosecutors have suggested there are gang overtones to the cases.
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For background read, “Chehalis Wal-Mart stabbing suspect says teen hit him first” from Tuesday October 10, 2017, here [2]