Though Chris Bell still faces sentencing in August, his lawyer said the former Nittany Lion wide receiver is satisfied with a plea deal that will allow him to serve just two years' probation.
"Chris wanted to take responsibility for doing something wrong," Bell's attorney, Anthony De Boef, said yesterday.
Bell was charged April 7 with terroristic threats, simple assault, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and harassment after police said he threatened teammate Devon Still with a knife in the Pollock Dining Commons. The two were fighting over a cell phone case Still accused Bell of taking from him earlier on April 7.
Bell pulled the 8-inch blade out of his sleeve, according to court documents.
A sentence of two years' probation is within the normal range for Bell, given Tuesday's plea to a first-degree misdemeanor count of terroristic threats, De Boef said.
"It was just a very normal resolution for a case with misdemeanors," he said.
Though both Bell and the commonwealth agreed on his plea deal and the sentence attached to it, he could face fines or community service when sentenced by Centre County Judge Bradley Lunsford on Aug. 29, Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira said Wednesday.
However, De Boef doesn't think Bell will receive a harsher punishment.
"I don't expect anything other than the plea agreement," he said.
Bell and fellow player Phil Taylor had been suspended from the football team in February because of off-the-field incidents and academic reasons, according to an athletic department press release. After the knife incident, Bell was suspended from the team permanently. On April 9, he was barred from campus "due to the violent nature of the allegations against him," Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers told the Collegian in April.
Powers said yesterday Bell has been indefinitely expelled from the university and is still barred from campus because he never went before the Office of Judicial Affairs.
Penn State's Football Communications and Branding Director Guido D'Elia said yesterday he doubted Bell would ever be allowed back on the Penn State football team, though he didn't know the details.
At the Big Ten media day in Chicago yesterday, Joe Paterno and Bell's former teammates declined to comment on the case.
Bell has since enrolled at Norfolk State University in his native Virginia, Norfolk State sports information director Matt Michalec told The Daily Collegian in June.
The move was a natural one for Bell following his troubles at Penn State, De Boef said.
"He's doing well; he's in school," De Boef said. "He's closer to home, and he's got good support down there."
