Stevens sentenced for attempted murder

ONEIDA, N.Y. » Michael Stevens was sentenced Thursday in Madison County Court to 27 1/3 to 32 years in state prison and five years of post-release supervision for convictions related to the attemptedmurder of domestic partner Erin Chesebro.

Stevens will also have to serve an additional 4 2/3 to 14 years for his subsequent attempts to arrange the murders of Chesebro and a man whom she had dated.

On July 14, 2016, Stevens stabbed Chesebro more than a dozen times with a butcher’s knife at the couple’s Lake Street home, according to trial testimony. Screams awakened the couple’s three children, who then witnessed the rest of the assault.

After his arrest for attempted murder, Stevens was held at Mad- ison County Jail, where he asked a fellow inmate to have a family member kill Chesebro, who was expected to testify at his trial, and to also kill David Scribner, who had dated Chesebro.

Stevens, who rejected a plea deal under which he would have served only 12 years in prison, was foundguiltyOct. 31, 2017, by a jury in Madison County Court of second-degree attempted murder, a class B felony; first-degree as- sault, a class B felony; third-degree criminal possession of aweapon, a class D felony; two counts of second-degree criminal solicitation, a class D felony; and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Judge Patrick O’Sullivan announced the sentence Thursday after Chesebro, who did testify against Stevens during the trial, faced her assailant for one last time in court.

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CHARLES PRITCHARD — ONEIDA DAILY DISPATCH Michael Stevens at his sentencing on Jan. 4, 2018, in Madison County Court, in Oneida, N.Y., for the attempted murder of Erin Chesebro.