LACLEDE — A Washington state man serving a 15-year-prison term for stabbing and nearly killing a man is petitioning for post-conviction relief, documents filed in 1st District Court show.

Shawn Montgomery Harp argues he received ineffective assistance from his defense counsel and was coerced into entering into a plea agreement by being charged with attempted first-degree murder despite a lack of evidence that the stabbing was premeditated.

“This charge was not and is not supported by the evidence,” Harp wrote in the petition, which was filed on Oct. 2.

Harp was accused of plunging a knife into the chest and back of a man in an unprovoked attack at a Laclede residents on Easter Sunday in 2017.

The alleged victim was in the process of purchasing a Ponderay automotive business owned by a relative of Harp’s.

Friends and family rushed the victim to a hospital, where doctors said the knife wounds came perilously close to his heart and spinal cord, according to court documents. Harp attempted to flee the scene in an all-terrain vehicle which did not belong to him, but was apprehended.

In an plea agreement with the state, Harp pleaded guilty to an amended charge of aggravated battery. Charges of operating a vehicle without consent and drug paraphernalia possession were dismissed and the state agreed not to pursue sentencing enhancements for using a deadly weapon during the commission of a crime and having prior felony convictions, court records indicate.

Harp contends the spasm of violence was the result of methamphetamine-induced psychosis, an assertion which is backed up by a mental health evaluation Harp submitted with his petition for relief.

Bonner County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Shane Greenbank recommended a three- to seven-year prison term, which aligned with the terms of the plea agreement. However, Judge Barbara Buchanan imposed a seven- to 15-year term partly because a lesser sentence would depreciate the seriousness of the offense.

Harp, 35, argues his appeal rights were nullified and his sentence was unfairly excessive. His petition seeks the imposition of the sentence recommended in the pretrial settlement agreement.

Due to overcrowding in the Idaho prison system, Harp is serving his sentence at a correctional facility in Eagle Pass, Texas, according to the Idaho Department of Correction’s website. He becomes eligible for parole in April 2024, IDOC’s website indicates.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.