A 32-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday and was sentenced to a year on probation for his part in the stabbing of a man who was left paralyzed after confronting a group of graffiti vandals in Anaheim.
Fernando Zarate pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and was placed on informal probation for a year. As part of the plea deal, charges of attempted murder, aggravated mayhem, participating in gang activity and vandalism, all felonies were dismissed, along with sentencing enhancements for attempted premeditated murder and gang activity.
Zarate was the last of four defendants charged in the attack that took place on July 26, 2015.
Co-defendant Alfredo Gabriel Villegas was sentenced on Feb. 22 to 22 years in prison.
Villegas pleaded guilty on June 11, 2021, to attempted murder and other charges stemming from the attack.
The then-51-year-old victim was stabbed in the 100 block of South Stinson Street near Lincoln Avenue and suffered a “life-altering injury,” police said in 2015.
Multiple people were “tagging a condemned building” when the victim pulled up and told them to stop, said Villegas’ attorney, Ed Welbourn. A fight broke out, with the defendants punching and kicking the victim, when Villegas stabbed the man, Welbourn said.
Villegas pleaded guilty to attempted murder, mayhem, assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and participating in a street gang, all felonies. He also admitted sentencing enhancements for gang activity and causing great bodily injury that leads to paralysis.
A sentencing enhancement for attempted premeditated murder and a count of aggravated mayhem were dismissed as part of Villegas’ plea bargain. He would have a faced a potential life sentence with those charges and the sentencing enhancement.
Two other men involved in the attack previously pleaded guilty.
Andrew Steven Morales, 30, pleaded guilty on Feb. 22 of last year to single felony counts of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, participating in gang activity and vandalism. He was sentenced to time already served in jail and was released.
Co-defendant Jacob Antonio Weis, 28, who was arrested on June 2, 2016, was sentenced last year to 13 years in prison, according to court records. He pleaded guilty to participating in gang activity and assault with a deadly weapon.
In both plea deals, charges of attempted murder with a sentencing enhancement of attempted premeditated murder, which carries a life sentence, were dismissed, along with charges of aggravated mayhem.