BELLINGHAM - Two cousins pleaded guilty this week to slashing a man's face with a rusty machete during a botched marijuana deal.
Robert Lee Anthony Piggee, 21, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for attempted robbery in the first degree.
His cousin, 27-year-old Nicholas Gamayal Lorden, pleaded guilty to the same crime but has not been sentenced. Prosecutors suggested a prison term of three years and eight months for Lorden, who already had three felonies on his record. His sentencing is set for 8:30 a.m. Aug. 9.
According to charges filed in Whatcom County Superior Court:
In September 2011, Dylan Albrecht arranged to sell marijuana to Eric Tyler Bennett, 19, in Rock Hill Park. Albrecht walked along the park trail, as it was getting dark, with the marijuana in his pack.
He saw a man he thought was Bennett sitting on a rock. The man asked if Albrecht had the drugs. Albrecht said yes. Then two other men - later identified as Piggee and Lorden - jumped out from the bushes and demanded the backpack.
One of the men wielded a rusty machete. Albrecht fought back: He grabbed the blade and cut his hand. As one of the men tried to tear the backpack away, he slashed Albrecht's forehead with the machete. All three men fell into a patch of blackberry bushes. Albrecht, bloodied and scratched up, escaped and ran to his car.
Albrecht was ordered in March to serve 50 days in jail for marijuana possession.
Piggee was arrested at 12:30 a.m. April 11, after an officer watched him blow through a stop sign and almost hit another car in the 2100 block of Texas Street, police said.
Bennett has pleaded not guilty in the robbery and, according to the latest available records, is seeking a new trial date.
In their guilty pleas, Lorden and Piggee agreed to cover Albrecht's hospital bill of $3,491.95. If he's convicted, Bennett would have to chip in, too.
This is Piggee's second robbery conviction. In 2009, he stopped a man walking on a bicycle trail near Racine Street. He said he was sorry - after pulling out a gun - but he "needed to take his (stuff)," according to court records. The man threw $100 on the ground and walked away. Piggee was sentenced to 18 months in prison in that case.
Reach CALEB HUTTON at caleb.hutton@bellinghamherald.com or call 715-2276.
