A Puyallup man pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree assault for punching a man in the face outside a bar last year, leaving the victim in a coma.
Daman Heath Lehman, who had been charged with first-degree assault, is to be sentenced March 22. The standard sentencing range is three to nine months in jail, but Pierce County deputy prosecutor Doug Hill said he would ask for a sentence of a year, saying “extenuating circumstances” justified going outside the standard range.
“The victim in this case almost died,” Hill said.
Witnesses said Lehman, 26, hit a 21-year-old man twice in the face April 28 outside Cheers, a bar in the 4100 block of South Meridian in Puyallup. The victim fell and hit his head on the pavement, suffering an injury that left him hospitalized for days.
Witnesses told police the victim made a comment about Lehman’s car right before he was attacked. Lehman told investigators he punched the younger man once because the man had been annoying him and wouldn’t leave him alone, court records show.
adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com
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