Lynn man sentenced for stabbing friend in neck

LYNN – A city man was sentenced to 1? years in a house of corrections for stabbing a former high school friend in the neck during a fight, with the jury rejecting the man’s claim of self-defense in a fight over an alleged drug robbery.”It is terrible circumstances that brings two former friends to this situation,” Lynn District Court Judge Albert Conlon said at the sentencing Tuesday morning. Conlon said he had little doubt drugs were involved in the incident, but “the defendant armed himself with a knife ? that’s not what friends do.”Shawn Doherty, 36, of 75 Edgemere Road, was arrested and charged with assault to murder; and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon; in September 2012. The Commonwealth dropped the assault to murder charge in January 2013 to keep the case in district court, according to court documents.Police responded to a Clarendon Avenue apartment early on the morning of Sept. 15, 2012 and found the alleged victim walking down the front steps with a knife sticking in his neck.The alleged victim told police Doherty had come over the previous night to hang out, and the alleged victim had awoken from falling asleep on the couch to find Doherty on top of him, stabbing him in the neck, police and prosecutors said.Police arrested Doherty a few blocks away, and he admitted to stabbing the alleged victim. But Doherty claimed it was in self-defense, according to police and prosecutors.Doherty told officials he went to the alleged victim’s apartment a few days earlier to buy marijuana when two men jumped him in the hallway. The men allegedly used Doherty to get the alleged victim to open the door then rushed into the apartment and allegedly stole drugs and money.Doherty told police the alleged victim suspected he was involved in the home invasion. Doherty said he went over to the apartment on the night of the stabbing after ensuring the alleged victim several times that he was not involved.But Doherty told police the alleged victim brought up the alleged home invasion again and the alleged victim attacked him with a knife. Doherty said he stabbed the alleged victim in self-defense.A jury returned a guilty verdict Monday evening after a 2?-day trial in Lynn District Court.The alleged victim and family members left immediately after the verdict and sentencing, but had pleased reactions to the verdict, with the alleged victim thanking prosecutor Doug Sheehan. Doherty declined to comment following the verdict. But his best friend Katrina Green said the system was flawed.”I don’t think it’s fair; the system does not work for people like him,” Green said. “(The alleged victim) can be selling drugs and (Doherty) gets jail.”Tuesday morning at the sentencing, Sheehan requested Doherty serve the maximum 2?-year sentence in a house of corrections. Sheehan noted that the alleged victim was fortunate to have escaped without more serious injuries.Defense attorney Meredith Reeves requested an 18-month sentence in a house of corrections, to be suspended for two years, noting that Doherty had no prior record at all and had been an exemplary probationer prior to trial.”In every estimation and all evidence, this night was a complete aberration for him,” Reeves said.Conlon ordered a sentence of 1? years in a house of corrections with 10 days credit.