An Athens man recently entered a guilty plea in Clarke County Superior Court to three felony crimes and three misdemeanor crimes stemming from the burglary of an Athens home in September 2023.

The plea was negotiated between District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez and Western Circuit Assistant Public Defender Matthew Lester.

But the decision ultimately lay with Superior Court Judge Lisa Lott.

In the end, Lott on June 13 rejected the plea bargain for seven years in prison. Instead, she imposed a 20-year prison sentence on the defendant, Rashard Timothy Blackshear. And she granted a motion to give him recidivist status due to her determination he was repeat offender.

The defendant had a right to back out of the sentence because it didn’t follow the bargain he was expecting.

And he did.

Blackshear now faces a possible jury trial on the still-pending charges.

Blackshear, a 35-year-old man, who has been in and out of jails and prisons for much of his 35 years, has a criminal history that includes more than a dozen felony convictions ranging from numerous theft cases, unlawful drugs, and burglary, with a scattering of sexual offenses, according to court documents.

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Those criminal convictions occurred in Clarke, Oconee and Tattnal counties, the recidivist records show.

At the outset of the hearing, Lott was advised by Gonzalez there would be dissent on how the court should handle the case. She noted the victims were opposed to the proposed sentence and their attorney Kevin Epps has been disrespectful to people in her office.

The district attorney urged the judge to maintain decorum in the courtroom, but Lott declined to comment on the difficulties between the two parties.

Blackshear entered the hearing already serving seven years in prison after Lott revoked his probation last December when he admitted he violated his probationary status, which included being arrested for loitering and prowling on the University of Georgia campus.

The proposed plea bargain would have run concurrent with the seven years he is now serving.

Epps said he was representing nine victims, all University of Georgia students, who were in the house on Waddell Street when it was burglarized late at night in 2023. One student told police she awoke to find Blackshear standing near her bed and masturbating. Epps also complained that Blackshear called this particular victim from jail, something Blackshear’s lawyer said was an attempt to apologize to her.

In arguing against the plea agreement, Epps pointed out a burglary conviction against Blackshear in 2014 in which he entered the room of an 11-year-old girl and pulled her bed covers off. That same year he was convicted of misdemeanor charges of distributing obscene material.

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In supporting Blackshear’s plea-bargained sentence, Lester described the difficult young life of his client, who suffered abuse and inherited a psychiatric condition. As youth, he was in and out of youth detention centers. Lester shared that Blackshear has a history of drug abuse from methamphetamine to fentanyl and alcohol.

Lester maintained the victims in this recent case will be sophomores at UGA this fall and they don’t want him released from prison before they graduate.

Lott, who said she was familiar with Blackshear, said that by imposing a 20-year prison term she was taking into account his significant criminal record of 16 felonies.

Additionally, she ordered that he have no contact with the victims and she barred him from the UGA campus and areas in Athens of the most recent crimes.

After she imposed the sentence, Lott told Blackshear he is legally entitled to withdraw his plea because he pled under a negotiated deal that she did not accept.

Epps told the court he had considered a Marsey’s Law violation against the district attorney’s office because he felt the victim’s rights have been violated. Epps has filed such complaints against Gonzalez in the past.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Athens man balks at jail sentence imposed after plea deal rejected