Hatchet tale flops; man gets prison

In March, a Pasco County jury didn't buy Daniel Stuckey's story that he accidentally dropped a hatchet on his wife and didn't intentionally hurt her.

On Friday, a circuit judge didn't buy the story, either.

Stuckey, 43, was sentenced to seven years in prison and three years of probation, to be served consecutively. He could have been sentenced to 15 years behind bars.

"I would like this court to have mercy on me," Stuckey told Circuit Judge Michael Andrews on Friday morning shortly before the sentence was handed down.

Stuckey said he didn't mean to hurt his wife.

"You hit somebody with a hatchet. How did you intend to have no harm?" Andrews asked.

On June 8, 2008, investigators say, Stuckey attacked his wife at their home at 10018 Old Orchard Lane in Port Richey. The couple's two daughters - Dominique, 16, and Danielle, 9 - testified during the one-day trial that they were in bed with their mother at the time of the incident, . Dominique Stuckey awoke and saw their father carrying the hatchet toward their mother and, screaming, the girl tried to stop him.

Antoinette said she woke up because of the screaming and that her husband started swinging and cursing at her.

During his trial, Stuckey testified that when he and his wife were arguing that night, he had a hatchet in his hand that he had been using to move furniture with during the day. At some point, he dropped the hatchet and it struck her arm. Stuckey told jurors he had no idea how Antoinette Stuckey got the gash above her right eye.

"I just want you to understand that I feel bad about what happened," Stuckey told the court Friday.

Prosecutors asked that Stuckey be sentenced to the maximum term.

Assistant Public Defenders Don Hendry and Asma Ali asked Andrews to depart from sentencing guidelines, saying Stuckey didn't have a violent past.

"It was an isolated incident for which the defendant has shown remorse," Ali said, adding that Stuckey says he loves his family.

Stuckey originally was charged with attempted murder, but a jury acquitted him of that charge, finding him guilty on a lesser aggravated battery charge. If he had been convicted of attempted murder, he could have spent 30 years in prison.

"I simply cannot buy this argument that you continue to make that you didn't intend to use the hatchet," Andrews said before sentencing. "It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever."

Stuckey told the judge he was stunned by the sentence.

"I wish I could show you how I could move furniture with a hatchet," Stuckey told Andrews, who said that it didn't matter because the jury didn't buy that story.