A truck driver will serve prison time for slashing another driver with a knife at an area Kwik Trip last year.
Sixty-year-old Paul Stokes of Fox Point, Wisconsin is sentenced to two years in prison, followed by two years of supervision, for the attack that happened in October of 2024 at a West Salem Kwik Trip, when he reportedly said either “this is my country” or “it’s a free country.” The victim called police, and Stokes was arrested in Tennessee the next day.
At his sentencing on Tuesday, Stokes said he had hoped to avoid time behind bars. “I was hoping to be out where I could help with my grandkids’ Christmas,” Stokes told Judge Joseph Veenstra. “I didn’t get any Christmas last year, and it looks like I may not get it this year.” Stokes also said he wanted probation, so he could resume his driving.
Stokes is being given credit for 400 days already served since that attack, to which he pled guilty this fall to reckless endangerment for cutting another man, who was referred to in court by his initials, A.A. At the sentence hearing, prosecutor Emily Ruud described the severity of the victim’s injuries, saying A.A. received a “very, very serious injury that starts at the base of his neck, goes across his neck, and causes a wound that’s over 8 inches long” on his neck and chest. Defense attorney Zachariah Fudge said there was no indication of a religious or racial motivation for the actions by Stokes. The slashing victim’s nationality is described as Palestinian…