(After this story went to press to the Journal and the Sounder, Christopher Stovall contacted the Weekly to comment on this article. His comment appears at the end of this story. After the paper went to press, the victim also commented in regards to the case. Her statement is also at the end of the story.)

On Sept. 11, a 40-year-old Lopez Island man has been convicted of attempted assault in the second degree with a deadly weapon after entering an Alford plea.

The definition of an Alford plea is that the criminal defendant does not admit the act, but admits that the prosecution could likely prove the charge.

Christopher D. Stovall will serve four months total, two months of work crew and two months of electronic home detention.

Stovall was originally charged April 24, 2014 for assault in the second degree with a firearm and rape of a child in the third degree.

The second charge was dropped and the first charge was amended to an attempted assault in the second degree.

According to the prosecutor’s office recreating the timeline played a large role in why the rape of a child charges were dropped. Prosecutors say they had difficulties proving the age of the victim at the time because the alleged assault was reported years after the initial incident. In Washington State 16 is the age of consent.

According to the defense, the state had “serious proof problems” and that is why the rape charges were dropped.

The initial charges stemmed from allegations of incidents in 2012 and 2013 between Stovall and the alleged victim.

In the first meeting in May 2012, the two allegedly met at a hotel in Burlington where Stovall, then 36, gave the then-15-year-old a tattoo. According to the prosecutor’s sentencing memorandum, Stovall began to send the victim messages online until she agreed to meet again. Also in that memorandum the two allegedly had sex during that second visit on Lopez Island.

In the third meeting in January 2013 on Orcas Island he began giving her a second tattoo, which ended, according to court documents, in him pointing a gun at her after she allegedly refused his sexual advances.

According to initial charging documents, Stovall admitted to taking his .380 automatic handgun out of his bag and indicated that he fired the gun outside at the time of the incident.

The state’s sentencing memorandum stated Stovall told the detective: “I was in love with her. I thought we would be together forever.” The documents said he admitted to pulling out a gun and that “she was scared.”

According to the defendant’s sentencing memorandum, Stovall had alcohol abuse issues.

“I tried to help law enforcement get to the bottom of this so they could see what really happened,” Stovall wrote in an email to the Weekly. “I feel as though my statements and comments to law enforcement were taken out of context.”

The victim told the Weekly, “I was traumatized by Christopher Stovall, and to this day I am still dealing with what he did.”

Editor Cali Bagby contributed to this story.