ROLFE — The man accused of attempted murder in an October Rolfe stabbing has been released from custody after pleading guilty to significantly lesser charges.

Michael Gord, 28, pleaded guilty to two counts of willful injury causing serious injury, Class D felonies, in December. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment on each charge, but was given credit for time served and saw the remaining balance of his sentence suspended.

Gord will remain on supervised probation for at least two years.

Charges were reduced from attempted murder after new findings surfaced from defense investigations that seemed to indicate circumstances that did not support the higher charges, according to Pocahontas County Attorney Dan Feistner.

Feistner said that both parties agreed that the lesser charges were more supported by the facts of the case. Information presented by defense attorneys indicated that Gord may have stabbed the victim in self defense.

The county attorney said that the willful injury charges were “hard to refute” when the victim needed urgent medical attention in the way he did. He also noted the outcome was agreeable to the victim.

Gord was also ordered to pay $50 restitution, in addition to the sentence, to cover clothing lost by the victim.

The Pocahontas County Sheriff’s Office alleged at the time of the charges that Gord approached and assaulted the victim, 36, in the 100 block of Garfield Street, accusing the victim of stalking Gord’s wife and children. Criminal complaints allege that Gord approached the victim outside of his vehicle and stabbed him with an 18-inch knife.

The Pocahontas County Sheriff’s Office said the victim sustained two large stab wounds on his right thigh and left buttock, each one about 2 inches long. He was transported by ambulance to Pocahontas Community Hospital and subsequently to a Des Moines-area hospital for treatment of a severed artery in his left buttock.

Hospital staff advised Pocahontas deputies that the victim would have bled to death without treatment.

Gord was apprehended at his grandmother’s house in Dakota City later in October.