By Amy Berberyan and Shady Gonzales
MODESTO, CA – The jury here in Stanislaus County Superior Court Friday found Spurgeon Bland not guilty on five of six charges, including attempted murder.
Bland faced six separate charges—kidnapping, false imprisonment, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, assault, and battery.
But the jury found that Bland was not guilty of kidnapping, false imprisonment and attempted murder, as well as two offenses of battery, which had been charged as misdemeanors, and assault, which had also been charged as a misdemeanor.
Bland was found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon as a result of having inflicted great bodily injury upon his victim. 
At the start of the trial, Bland sobbed and exclaimed to Judge Dawna Reeves that he did not “want to die in prison.”
The charges were in reference to a crime that occurred on Aug. 19, 2021. The charges of assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder were related to a stabbing that occurred on that night.
The rest of the charges emanated from information provide to police and other officials by a woman who had an intimate relationship with Bland.
The woman claimed that, while under the influence of methamphetamine, Bland had forcefully kidnapped her, that Bland had admitted to stabbing someone that night, and that Bland had thrown a knife into the backseat of the vehicle in which she and Bland were sitting.
On Monday, while under oath and in a state of sobriety, the woman testified in trial that all of these claims had been lies in order to prevent her boyfriend from finding out about her relationship with Bland.
She testified that she had acted out of paranoia of the possibility that the stabbing could have been committed by Bland, but that there was no real evidence of that.
Bland’s bail was set to no bail, with a sentencing hearing April 20.
