(This is an update from articles that previously ran in the Journal.)
Victor James Capron Jr., 57, pleaded guilty in San Juan County Superior Court to two counts of assault in the third degree on Feb. 10. Capron was sentenced on March 4 to 30 days in jail followed by 4.5 months on work crew.
Prosecutors claim that Capron, born and raised on San Juan Island, stabbed Eric Michael King several times last March after a dispute over the potential sale of a $100 pickup.
King was found lying face up near the entrance to the Boreen property near the intersection of Hunt and Grover streets in Friday Harbor and flown to Harbor View Medical Center for treatment. He had bled profusely from a deep laceration under his left bicep by the time deputies arrived at the scene, and had a deep gash and a smaller wound on his face.
Capron was taken into custody Monday, March 23,2015 shortly after 6 p.m., after being located at the end of a long gravel driveway on the same property where King was found. He was intoxicated, slumped over in the front seat of his vehicle, a Ford Explorer, and nearly incoherent at the time. He had a folding knife in his right front pocket, and the front passenger seat and door were smeared in blood, according to Sheriff’s deputies.
Sources close to the defendant told the Journal last year that Capron maintained that he was defending himself during the altercation.
This was the second altercation with a knife that King was involved with in 2015. Last May, King pleaded guilty in San Juan County Superior Court to one count of third-degree attempted assault for another altercation involving a knife and another man that occurred in January of 2015.
Last March, Capron, who has no history of violent crime, pleaded not guilty to the original charges of one count of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon. Those charges were eventually dropped.In regards to the recent charges of two counts of assault in third degree, the prosecution said they reached an “agreement with Capron’s defense team that is acceptable to the victim in this case and to law enforcement.”
Editor Cali Bagby contributed to this piece
