A Charleston man pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding on Friday after authorities accused him of shooting a man and taking him to the hospital in a U-Haul truck.
Mark E. Broat, 27, avoided other severe charges when he accepted the plea agreement in front of Kanawha Circuit Judge James Stucky.
Though he entered a guilty plea, Broat maintained that he shot James B. Green in self defense.
"With those charges that they have on me, it's 22 to life - better this than risking that," he said, addressing the judge.
He was originally indicted on charges of kidnapping, attempted murder, wanton endangerment, prohibited person in possession of a firearm and wanton endangerment.
With his plea on Friday, Broat gave up the right to argue his self-defense claim in front of a jury.
Sheriff's deputies arrested him on Dec. 21, 2016, after he shot Green twice at a home on Conner Drive in Charleston.
Broat put Green into a U-Haul truck and drove him to Charleston Area Medical Center hospital.
In a previous letter to the Gazette-Mail, Broat maintained that he shot Green in self defense.
He said Green was acting "odd" and "erratic," and that Green allegedly had a gun in his jacket pocket.
Broat claimed that he took the gun from Green and, in response, Green tried to stab him with a large knife.
"I moved him to the hospital so he could have help," Broat said in the letter.
He wrote the letter from South Central Regional Jail.
Broat now faces one to five years in prison, or up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $500.
Judge Stucky reduced Broat's bail to $10,000 after his attorney, John Sullivan, requested that it be reduced to $5,000.
If he were to post bail, Broat would be confined to his mother's home.
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 31 at 1:30 p.m. in Kanawha County Circuit Court.
Reach Giuseppe Sabella at giuseppe.sabella@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @Gsabella on Twitter.