PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man who stabbed a man at a grocery store parking lot in July pleaded guilty and was sentenced for second-degree assault.
Joseph Warren Recoy, 24, was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison and 18 months of community custody for stabbing Nicholas Johnson, 28, on July 10, according to court records.
Recoy jabbed Johnson in the abdomen with his knife and ran, according to a police report. When questioned by police, Johnson admitted to the stabbing at the Safeway on Lincoln Street in Port Angeles.
“I’ve never had to hurt someone like that,” Recoy told police, according to the report. “Honestly, I don’t feel bad that I did it; I feel bad that it had to happen.”
Police said at the time that there had been “some sort of argument” between the two men.
Recoy was charged in July with second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, with a deadly weapon enhancement, but the enhancement was removed in the plea agreement.
Letter to court
In a letter to the court, Johnson wrote that he escaped death 10 years ago after a fatal wreck, and he escaped death again in the July stabbing.
Johnson wrote that nobody deserves such a life-changing injury and that Recoy’s intention was to kill him.
“He even said to me ‘I’ll stab you, I’ll kill you,’ ” Johnson wrote.
He wrote that Recoy should have faced a stiffer sentence.
“Due to that attempt of murder, the perp will only receive … two years in prison and a 10 year no-contact order,” Johnson wrote. “Come on now, it should be the other way around.”
Recoy has previously been convicted of child molestation, two counts of failure to register as a sex offender and bail jumping.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsula dailynews.com.
