[classicman]

A judge Friday sent a Virginia man to prison for 15 years for sending a text message to a former Frederick woman he was previously convicted of assaulting.

In October 2005, Colin Akin Johnson stabbed Lakisha Frye seven times and almost cut off an ear, according to testimony in Frederick County Circuit Court.

In August 2006, Judge John H. Tisdale ordered Johnson to serve five years of a 20-year sentence in the Maryland Division of Correction for the first-degree assault conviction.

Released Jan. 29, 2009, after spending more than three years and three months behind bars, Johnson told Tisdale on Friday that his mistake "was allowing Lakisha back in my life ... I came out (of prison) and I was ready to go. I was trying to be the best dad I could be."

Johnson and Frye have a daughter together, and he also treated Frye's older daughter as his own, according to court testimony.

Tisdale recalled the heinousness of the 2005 crime during a 30-minute hearing Friday in which Johnson admitted sending the text message, which meant he had violated probation.

The judge refereed arguments between Assistant State's Attorney Teresa R. Bean and defense attorney Alan L. Winik. The two lawyers Friday were pushing for starkly different punishments for Johnson's offense.

Bean urged Tisdale to impose the previously suspended 15 years. Winik said a sanction was appropriate, but suggested the seven months Johnson has served since being arrested in June 2009 should be considered.

"Things should be kept in perspective," Winik said.

The text message Johnson, 32, sent Frye the day he was served with a protective order was not inflammatory, Winik said.

"Sorry about all this. Call me when you get a chance," he read from a document that stated the content of Johnson's text message.

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