ROCKLAND — A Jay man will spend 90 days in jail for stabbing a man with a broken bottle during an argument over white supremacist tattoos.

Mark McCrillis, 35, was sentenced Monday to five years in jail with all but 90 days suspended and placed on probation for two years for aggravated assault. McCrillis had pleaded to the reduced charge after initially being arrested for elevated aggravated assault.

He was also ordered to pay restitution of about $9,000 to help pay for medical care for the victim, who was nearly killed, according to court records. The district attorney’s office had requested $61,000 in restitution.

Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Baroody said the sentence agreement was reached because McCrillis would have raised self-defense issues if the case had gone to trial.

Mark McCrillis Photo courtesy of Knox County jail

Rockland police officers responded the night of Jan. 31 to a report of a fight near the intersection of Pacific and Lawrence streets, according to an affidavit filed by Rockland police in the Knox County court.

According to the police, the victim and a female friend had met McCrillis at a local bar and they all planned on going to a Pacific Street residence. Neither the victim nor the friend were named.

The man who was stabbed is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist group, according to court records. McCrillis told the victim that he also was a member of the Aryan Nation, but an argument broke out when McCrillis could not show he had the tattoos associated with the group, according to the affidavit. During the fight, the unidentified man was severely cut with a broken bottle.

When officers arrived, they found a large amount of blood in the the road. Two people told the arriving officers that the victim was in a Pacific Street residence and they were afraid he was going to die.

Emergency medical services was called but, before they arrived, Officer Addison Cox applied a tourniquet to the man’s arm. An artery in the man’s arm had been severed by the broken bottle. The bottle was broken when McCrillis smashed it over the victim’s head, according to the affidavit.

The victim was taken first to Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport and then to Maine Medical Center in Portland suffering from minor bleeding in his brain as well as the serious injury to his arm.

Doctors said that the man would likely have died if the officer had not acted so quickly, according to Rockland Deputy Police Chief Chris Young.