COEUR d’ALENE — A drunken altercation in a Post Falls bowling alley last spring resulted in more than $173,000 in medical bills, and a five-year prison sentence for a 28-year-old Post Falls man.

Cory J. Staples pleaded guilty to aggravated battery for throwing a 12-ounce beer glass at the face of another man whom Staples claimed was being belligerent.

The man, Steven T. Wilson, according to court documents, suffered severe eye injuries.

Staples, a construction foreman with two previous felonies, had been released from prison in 2016 after serving a sentence for property destruction. He told the court he was drunk at the time of the latest altercation and that he was sorry for the incident.

Attorneys asked the court to retain jurisdiction, and Staples pleaded guilty to a Rule 11 agreement that would have allowed him to take back his guilty plea if the judge opted against the plea agreement.

First District Judge Lansing Haynes did not agree with the plea measures, but Staples did not take back his guilty plea.

“I’d like to apologize,” Staples said at his sentencing. “I was intoxicated. I felt threatened. Whatever happens today, I understand it is my fault.”

Wilson was immobilized, with his arms being held behind his back by another man, during the altercation after midnight March 17 at River City Lanes, police said. That’s when Staples struck him with a beer glass.

Wilson told the court he was trying to protect another person when he was grabbed and immobilized before being struck with the beer glass.

The glass shattered on Wilson’s face, causing severe eye damage, he said.

Since the incident, Wilson said he has accrued $120,000 in medical bills. Glass shards remain in his eye. Wilson said the damage to his eye requires a cornea replacement, and he could lose the eye.

Haynes said despite the letters of support for Staples, he considered an extensive criminal record, significant disciplinary actions while in prison, and the fact that Wilson was “truly defenseless” when Staples cracked him with the glass.

Haynes also ordered Staples to pay restitution.