SANDPOINT - A Sandpoint man once accused of a stabbing in Ponderay is facing a reduced charge after some witnesses told authorities he was not the person wielding the knife.

Adam Rew Carash is expected to plead guilty and be sentenced next month on a charge of misdemeanor battery. The reduced charge was announced during Carash's preliminary hearing on a felony battery charge on Wednesday, April 9.

Carash, 27, was one of two suspects implicated in the Feb. 29 attack on a 48-year-old Ponderay man, who was allegedly beaten and stabbed in the abdomen. The man survived the attack.

Timothy “Bear” Grant Larson was identified as the other alleged assailant.

Initially, Carash was charged with committing the stabbing and Larson was accused of joining the attack after the victim was on the ground. But witnesses later said it was Larson who used the knife, according to Bonner County Prosecutor Phil Robinson.

Larson, 29, also of Sandpoint, is charged with aggravated battery and a preliminary hearing is planned for later this month.

In another about face in the case, a third Sandpoint man accused of attempting to intimidate the victim and keep him from testifying against his attackers was cleared of any wrongdoing last month. Nicholas Julles Douglas insists he went to the victim's home as a show of solidarity, a point which is no longer being disputed.

The prosecution has indicated Douglas, 27, is expected to testify against Larson and Carash, although Douglas has questioned why he would be called as a witness when he did not see the attack and said he knows little about the defendants.