Staff Writer

A Jonesville teen-ager who stabbed an acquaintance in May received a three-year prison sentence Thursday and has been ordered to pay the victim's medical bills.

Michael Jeter, 19, of 441 Whitlock Lake Road pleaded guilty to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. Circuit Judge Michael Nettles of Florence sentenced Jeter to nine years in prison, suspended the sentence to three years, gave Jeter five years of probation and ordered him to pay restitution of $16,986 for the victim's medical bills at the rate of $150 a month.

The stabbing incident occurred on May 23 at the BP Station on 1315 Lockhart Highway in Monarch. Deputy Thom McAbee and Sgt Dee Haney were called to the station to handle a fight in progress. Before they could arrive, they were told by 911 that someone had been stabbed and was being taken to Wallace Thomson Hospital.

At the station, no one there could tell the deputies who had been stabbed or who did the stabbing.

At the hospital, Richard Brandon, 23, told deputies he and Jeter got into an altercation over a woman who now is Brandon's girlfriend and Jeter stabbed him. The girlfriend drove Brandon to the hospital. Brandon was cut on the right side of his neck and on his left arm. He later was airlifted to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center. He has since been released.

Sheriff Howard Wells said Cpl. Dean Gibson stopped a car on the Beltline that had Jeter inside on May 27. Jeter jumped out and ran.

Officers searched the Beltline area, Monarch Highway and McKanic Road but could not locate Jeter.

Wells said that on Memorial Day, May 30, they received a tip that Jeter was at home. Haney and Deputies Scott Ruby, Randy Manus and McAbee, along with Jonesville Police Officer Scott Hood went to the residence. Haney spoke with a woman there who said Jeter was not in the residence. Haney advised her that she could be arrested for giving false information to police if Jeter were found inside.

A woman at the residence called Jeter out of a room, and Jaran Harris, another man for whom the sheriff's office had warrants was found, also, Wells said. When officers tried to handcuff Harris, he resisted.

Harris, 21, of 443 Whitlock Lake Road, is accused of hitting a relative on Whitlock Lake Road on Sept. 11, 2007.