Medina pleads guilty to Montevideo stabbings

GRANITE FALLS - A 21-year-old Montevideo man will be returning to prison for his second time after pleading guilty on Monday afternoon to felony charges for stabbing three people during a fight and in a separate incident, threatening a witness with his knife.

Victor Daniel Medina is expected to be sentenced to 150 months in prison under terms of a plea agreement. He entered the pleas during a court appearance in Granite Falls.

District Judge Paul Nelson accepted the guilty pleas but deferred sentencing until Friday.

Medina entered a guilty plea to first degree witness tampering for a June 27 incident in Montevideo. He admitted to having put his knife blade to the throat of a witness to a beating and robbery that had occurred earlier that evening. He threatened the man by saying: "You know what I could do.'' He also cut the man below the eye, according to his testimony.

He also pleaded guilty to three separate charges of second degree assault- one for each victim- for allegedly having stabbed a man and two women during an after drinking hours brawl Sept. 4 in a parking lot behind Inn Like Flinn's.

Three charges of first degree assault were dismissed under terms of the plea agreement.

The male victim suffered multiple knife wounds and was airlifted to the Hennepin County Medical Center, where he was hospitalized for a considerable length of time, according to information presented in court.

The two female victims required treatment at the Chippewa County-Montevideo Hospital. One required surgery for her wounds.

Medina has previously served time in prison for violating probation terms following a 2006 third degree assault conviction involving the use of a baseball bat.

Medina had been on the lamb for 21 days following the stabbings but was apprehended when someone recognized him in Watertown, S.D. and notified law enforcement.