Blue Lake man pleads no contest to attempted murder
Sean Garmire/The Times-Standard
Posted: 11/21/2008 01:24:14 AM PST
A 45-year-old Blue Lake man pleaded no contest to charges that he attempted to murder his girlfriend after striking her multiple times in the face with a pipe last January.
On Thursday, Thomas Wallace appeared before a Humboldt County Superior Court judge and pleaded no contest to one count of attempted murder. The plea was part of an agreement with the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office that dismissed two lesser charges of assault with a deadly weapon and domestic abuse.
The agreement will give a judge the discretion to decide a number of possible sentences for Wallace. At maximum, he faces nine years in prison -- at minimum, nine years probation.
According to testimony in court, on Jan. 20, 2008, deputies with the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office responded to a Blue Lake residence and found a victim lying on the ground, bleeding from the head and suffering from a fractured forehead and eye socket.
The woman was listed in critical condition, but survived the incident.
The deputies also found a large metal pipe with blood on it at the location.
Wallace was spotted at a Blue Lake gas station by ambulance personnel as they responded to the victim, and he was later arrested.
Sean Garmire can be reached at 441-0514 or sgarmire@times-standard.com.
