By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The case of a bar fight that led to charges of felony assault and witness tampering by the owner of a Centralia used car business ended today with a jail sentence of five months.
John I. Burkett, 40, was set to go to trial next week and decided to accept a plea offer instead.
Burkett said he was afraid he would lose everything if he ended up going to prison.
“She was asking for 22 months if I went to trial and lost, and I was scared, I’ve got kids,” Burkett said, referring to the deputy prosecutor.
The Winlock resident pleaded guilty today in Lewis County Superior Court to tampering with a witness and malicious prosecution.
Burkett indicated the malicious prosecution charge came about when he told police another man put his hands on the woman he was dancing with at Paradise in Chehalis in December of 2011.
The 25-year-old victim who suffered an injury to the back of his head was not present in the courtroom this afternoon.
The witness tampering charge, Burkett admitted in a written statement, was because he offered the man $3,500 in hopes he would absent himself from further court hearings.
Dismissed were charges of assault and bribing a witness.
Burkett owns Burkett’s Auto Sales on on South Gold Street in Centralia.
Defense attorney Chris Baum told the judge today he client was very sorry for what he’d done.
“This is a real unfortunate situation that was blown out of proportion,” Baum said.
The Chehalis attorney said his client tried to resolve the issue by attempting to offer restitution privately.
Judge James Lawler decided Burkett would have to spend 30 days in jail and would be free to serve the rest of his sentence on electronic home monitoring.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
John is an awesome parent and an awesome car salesman he’s the only one that helped me when I had nothing knowing that I had bad credit he still financed me a automobile thank God for his help because I would have never made it to my doctor’s appointments in Tacoma