We previously covered why Michael Hunt was innocent of the allegations made against him concerning the alleged stalking of Lena Del Ray by being late trying to go to her concert with a knife in his pocket. At the time it made national news aka national witch hunt, I am not sure there was anyone else who would speak publicly to his defense. He was charged as a felon with a weapon, and aggravated stalking with a credible threat (with a weapon). On about October 5th, 2018, After 245 days in custody and some type of competency evaluations, Michael Hunt plead guilty to misdemeanor stalking-and the possession of a weapon charge resulted in a nolle prosequi (prosecution will not pursue). The plea agreement has him sentenced to 11 months 29 days in the county jail-basically a year-and $585 in fines; less than 4 months left at max. I am not sure if he can be released early in Florida, but at this time he is still reported in custody.
I don't see that his attorney, Nicholas Stack, filed one motion to dismiss in the case. But on September 10th, 2018, the attorney made the court know the manufacturing specs on a hi jinx z knife. It has 3.293 inch blade. Under Florida law such a knife, if a closed position, is legal to have as we previously blogged...back on May 5th when i received discovery....and back on April 2nd when I learned there were weapons based charges (filed march 22nd) for the knife. So the state fundamentally erred on the two charges.
Had the matter gone to a demurrer (motion to dismiss) it could still be a few months before the judge makes a ruling on what is obvious-the state had no case. Or, in the alternative, the prosecutor could in theory dismiss the indictments and still try to prosecute him for stalking, or for the substances that was found in his back pack at the bus station. Even though it looks like he beat the present charges against him, the prosecutor, in theory, could have kept him in jail on new charges. Pleading guilty, even though he remains in jail until the end of January, was likely the fastest way to end the stress...especially the competency evaluations.
It isn't clear if Hunt was found incompetent to stand trial [IST] (his facebook posts may suggest erotomanic delusions, but that doesn't mean he would be found IST), though the court did find that at the time of pleading guilty that he was competent. There are a few times when a state can forcefully medicate a person, and one of those times is to restore an IST defendant to competency. Although Hunt wasn't a political prisoner, IST status is something political prisoners need to be extremely careful of as the judges have immense power to humiliate a person and often time that is their goal. So if you have full resolve and determination to beat a false indictment, a state could medicate you into a zombie who will agree to anything. It is a dirty and open secret about how nefarious IST procedures are, and often due process is skipped.
Why did it take his attorney 4-5 months to raise the issue of the knife blade. Had the matter gone to trial on the charges presented, the prosecution would have failed either in the trial courts or upon appeal and the case (aside from any drug charges) would be over with. I think they wanted to raise the issue of how weak the prosecutors case was as a way to end the prosecution and get his client out of jail asap. It's not like he had a clean record going in.