SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ The man suspected of nearly killing French hero Spencer Stone in a Sacramento street brawl in 2015 pleaded guilty Friday to attempted murder in the incident.
James Tran, 29, faces a May 12 sentencing in Sacramento Superior Court. Stone, one of three men who stopped an August 2015 terrorist attack aboard a French passenger train, was in court Friday to witness the plea.
The plea agreement calls for a nine-year sentence for attempted murder charge plus enhancements of causing great bodily injury, use of knife, said Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney Anthony Ortiz.
"I thought that he probably should have gotten more time but it is what it is," Stone said. "I'm just glad this chapter of my life is over."
Sacramento Police Department officials said Stone, an Air Force staff sergeant, was stabbed multiple times outside a 21st and K Street nightclub on Oct. 8, 2015, at 12:45 a.m. The altercation started as a verbal argument between Stone's group and a group of people accompanying Tran after someone in Tran's party allegedly videotaped someone in Stone's group.
The altercation initially died down but then turned into a physical fight after Stone was allegedly swarmed by multiple men, including Tran. Surveillance video from a nearby liquor store showed Stone fighting the group, including one man who stabbed him repeatedly and who police say was Tran.
Stone was rushed to University of California, Davis Medical Center, suffering punctures to his heart, liver and lung in the stabbing and underwent open-heart surgery.
Tran was arrested by Sacramento Police Department officers on Nov. 4, 2015, in Elk Grove, almost a month after the stabbing.
Stone and two childhood friends from Sacramento became instant celebrities when they tackled and disarmed a gunman on the train while on vacation. Stone, Anthony Sadler and Oregon National Guardsman Alex Skarlatos were awarded France's Legion of Honor for their courage.
