Attempted murder defendant pleads guilty to assault

A man who plowed his car into a group of teenagers at a house party in Ewa Beach in 2016 pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree assault and attempted assault in a plea deal with the state.

Malik Morton, 23, was charged with attempted murder for striking an 18-year-old woman and 17-year-old boy. The woman was thrown into the air from the impact and had to be put into an induced coma to heal from her injuries.

The deal calls for a sentence of four years of probation and 18 months in jail, with credit for the 16 months Morton has spent in custody from the time of his arrest in May 2017. He will be sentenced in October.

Defense attorney Myles Breiner said Morton never intended to injure anyone, claiming he was trying to escape a racist attack. Prosecutors argued Morton was angry about an altercation from earlier that day.