A judge has denied a motion from Daniel Singletary to reconsider the 18-year prison sentence he received for stabbing a Henrico High School classmate with a box cutter in December 2024. Singletary, now 19, appeared in Henrico County court for the post-trial motion, which sought to reopen a punishment he had already agreed to as part of a plea deal.
Singletary pleaded guilty to aggravated malicious wounding in January, admitting that he cut the neck of his classmate with a three-inch box cutter, according to WRIC ABC 8News. A judge had sentenced him to 40 years in prison with 22 years suspended, leaving him with 18 years to serve. His plea agreement capped any possible sentence at 20 years, meaning the judge ultimately came in below that ceiling.
At this week's hearing, Singletary's attorney, Sabina Thaler, argued that a transfer order had affected how the reconsideration motion was filed and processed. Commonwealth's Attorney Allison Martin pushed back, arguing that the transfer order and the motion's timeliness made no difference to the outcome, per the station's report.
A Plea Deal That Barred a Second Chance
The sticking point for the judge was not just the merits of the motion but the terms Singletary had already accepted. His plea deal included a non-modification provision explicitly barring him from returning to court to ask for a sentence change or reconsideration. The judge noted that the Commonwealth does have the ability to waive that provision in some cases, but the same account notes that it did not do so for this particular motion.
In denying the request, the judge warned that granting reconsideration here would undermine the plea process more broadly, saying the court system would come crashing down if every plea deal were reopened after the fact. The ruling leaves Singletary's 18-year sentence intact.
The Attack and Its Aftermath
The stabbing happened on Dec. 4, 2024, between two male students at Henrico High School, according to 12 On Your Side. One student was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries while the other was taken to a different hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, that outlet reported.
The victim's mother has described the severity of her son's injuries in earlier sentencing coverage, saying he had to relearn how to swallow and eat after the attack. His vagus nerve — described as a crucial nerve connecting the brain, heart, lungs and digestive system — was hit during the stabbing, per the same account. The victim was in surgery for more than eight hours, underwent a second surgery the following day, and spent a total of three and a half weeks in the hospital.
With the reconsideration motion denied, Singletary's 18-year sentence stands as originally handed down, closing off at least this avenue for revisiting the punishment tied to the Henrico High School stabbing.
