Man gets 9 years in stabbing over pizza

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LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — A man convicted in the stabbing a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student after trying to steal his pizza has been sentenced to nine years in prison.

A jury convicted 24-year-old Anthony M. Lee in September of five charges, including burglary and second-degree reckless endangerment. He was sentenced Friday, the La Crosse Tribune reported.

Bradley Scholl was eating pizza with his roommate in July 2012 when Lee and co-defendant Bret Clark broke into their apartment and demanded the pizza, prosecutors said. One of the men stabbed Scholl in the face, but prosecutors couldn’t prove which man wielded the knife.

“The knife that entered me was inches from my vital arteries in my neck and my brain,” Scholl testified. “This was literally inches from being a murder case.”

Scholl, 22, said he was on a liquid diet for months and still suffers from anxiety, paranoia and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Defense attorney Bernardo Cueto said Lee had a chaotic and unstable childhood and grew up without a father. Lee’s mother and brother asked the judge to give Lee mental-health treatment rather than a prison sentence.

Lee apologized to Scholl “even though I had nothing to do with” the stabbing.

Clark pleaded guilty to two charges in his case. He was sentenced to one year in jail and five years on probation.

Information from: La Crosse Tribune, http://www.lacrossetribune.com