An Ohio University student charged with stabbing a fellow student outside of Courtside Pizza pleaded guilty before Judge George P. McCarthy in the Athens County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday.
Patrick Barry, a senior studying health services administration, stabbed OU student Michael Gallas four times last February, according to a statement from Gallas during the trial.
According to a previous Post article, Gallas and Barry had a history of feuding before the incident. Gallas is a member of Pi Alpha Kappa Fraternity and Barry was a member a Sigma Pi Fraternity.
Barry was originally given one charge of felonious assault, a felony of the second degree.
In the proceedings on Tuesday, Barry made a change of plea to one charge of aggravated assault, a fourth-degree felony, and pleaded guilty.
Barry entered a plea agreement with Athens County Assistant Prosecutor Michael A. Prisley, which will allow Barry to attend Athens County Empowerment, a diversion program, rather than do prison time.
In addition to attending the program, Barry must pay a $1,160 fine to reimburse the county for the 18 days he spent in jail. He is also required to provide equitable remedies for the financial and emotional trauma he caused Gallas. He also must pay $4,876.24 in restitution to cover Gallas’ medical bills, Prisley said.
“Fears of being attacked were and are constantly on my mind,” Gallas wrote in a statement, “and could be triggered in a number of ways, such as seeing a beer bottle or hearing the words ‘stab’ or ‘stabbed.’”
In his impact statement, Gallas complained of having to stay at home to remedy his injuries over OU’s spring break in 2013, while his friends went on vacation. In response, McCarthy forbade Barry from “leaving for spring break” during OU’s spring break in 2014.
As part of the plea agreement, if Barry breaks these conditions, he will be expelled from the diversion program and sentenced to prison time with no jury trial.
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A previous version of this article originally stated Patrick Barry is a member of Sigma Pi fraternity. Barry is not longer a member of that fraternity.
