CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WV News) — A 42-year-old Clarksburg man has pleaded guilty to malicious assault in return for the state agreeing not to seek a repeat felon sentencing enhancement.

Harrison Circuit Judge D. Andrew McMunn accepted the plea from Robert Isaac Snell and set sentencing Nov. 14, after Probation Officer Heidi Leaseburge updates a prior Snell presentence investigation.

Snell's factual basis, and a case summary from Assistant Prosecutor Andrea Roberts, didn't match, but both accounts agreed that Snell stabbed the other man, and there was no mention of self-defense. That was enough for McMunn to accept the plea.

Defense attorney Dreama Sinkkanen said her client possibly could have raised self-defense at trial, but decided he would rather take the state's plea offer.

Roberts al

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