A 38-year-old Central Avenue man charged with second-degree assault declined a plea offer this afternoon in Genesee County Court.
Jason E. Carpenter opted to take his case to trial, according to his attorney, Jerry Ader, and it was put on the court docket for the week of Nov. 13.
He was arrested in March following an investigation by City of Batavia Police Department into a fight involving multiple persons at the corner of Liberty and Sumner streets at 12:10 a.m. on Feb. 26. Carpenter is accused of punching another person in the eye, causing multiple facial fractures.
Carpenter is charged with second-degree assault, a Class D violent felony, and was subsequently indicted for the crime by the Grand Jury. The indictment alleges that with intent to cause serious physical injury to another person, he caused such injury to a person, on Feb. 26 on Liberty Street.
If found guilty on the charge, Carpenter faces up to seven years in state prison.
Under a plea deal offered by District Attorney Lawrence Friedman, the second-degree assault charge would be amended to attempted assault, a nonviolent Class E felony, with a prison sentence range of one-and-a-third to four years, which the judge would determine.
"He's not interested in the plea -- we'd like to schedule this for trial," Ader told Judge Charles Zambito.
Carpenter, a somewhat burly, bearded strawberry blonde who wore khakis, a plaid shirt in earth tones, and clutched a baseball cap in his left hand, did not speak in court.
