POCATELLO — A local man accused of stabbing a Pocatello mother several times in October 2019 has pleaded guilty to felony aggravated battery, according to court records.

Steven Skylar Drain, 30, of Pocatello, pleaded guilty to the felony charge on Monday while appearing remotely from the Bannock County Jail for a hearing in front of 6th District Judge Robert C. Naftz.

Drain pleaded guilty as part of a binding plea arrangement with Bannock County Prosecutors, court records say. In exchange for pleading guilty to the felony aggravated assault charge, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a felony enhancement charge against Drain for using a weapon during the commission of a felony crime, court records say.

Additionally, prosecutors agreed to recommend a unified prison sentence against Drain of 15 years, of which he must spend at least seven years incarcerated until he would be eligible for parole, court records say.

If Naftz doesn’t agree with the terms of the binding plea agreement he can rule against the arrangement, at which point Drain would be eligible to withdraw his guilty plea and decide to take his case to trial, according to Bannock County Prosecutor Steve Herzog.

The plea agreement also states that Drain agreed to pay restitution for any costs, including medical bills, the woman may have incurred as a result of his alleged conduct.

Drain faced criminal allegations in connection to the Oct. 12, 2019, incident in which he allegedly stabbed a Pocatello woman multiple times and the incident ended with the blade of the knife being lodged in her back, according to police reports the Idaho State Journal obtained last fall.

After being airlifted from Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello, the mother of three Drain allegedly stabbed spent several days at the University of Utah Hospital in critical condition before she was stabilized. She suffered a broken jaw and some paralysis on her left side from nerve damage resulting from a stab wound to her back, according to an online fundraiser from the mother’s family posted to a Facebook page last year.

The incident began to unfold around 8:35 p.m. on Oct. 12, 2019. when a resident of an apartment on the 500 block of South Eighth Avenue in Pocatello dialed 911 to report that a woman had been attacked, police said.

When Pocatello police arrived, they observed the stabbing victim lying in a pool of blood on the outside steps leading up to the apartment house, police said. Her breathing was labored, she was unresponsive and she was bleeding profusely from the head, police said.

While rendering first aid to the woman who had been stabbed, police said they observed that the blade of the knife used in the attack was still lodged in her back. The blade was missing its handle but police later found the handle nearby.

Before the woman was airlifted, Pocatello police responded to PMC to interview the woman’s husband, who had arrived at the hospital to be there for his wife, police said.

The woman’s husband told police that he and his wife had been having some marital issues and that she had moved out of their home into her own apartment on South Eighth Avenue about four weeks prior to the stabbing, police said.

The husband said that the woman and Drain had entered into a romantic relationship, but he and his wife were attempting to reconcile. The husband said he knew of the romantic relationship because of Facebook messages he received from someone with a profile name of “Johnny MacLeod.”

Drain also goes by that name and the Facebook page proved to be a key piece of evidence leading police to identify him as a suspect in the stabbing.

The husband showed police the message thread and Facebook profile page. The profile pictures on the page depicted Drain, who police were able to positively identify based on the tattoos of sewing marks extending from the corners of Drain’s mouth, police said.

After interviewing other residents of the apartment house and searching the woman’s apartment, Pocatello police suspected Drain was the individual who had stabbed the woman multiple times and they issued a press release on the night of Oct. 12 alerting the public that he was a “person of interest” in the case.

Police said they received several tips from Pocatello residents about Drain’s whereabouts after issuing the press release. That information led Pocatello police to the home of one of Drain’s relatives in the 1500 block of Zener Street in northwest Pocatello around 1:15 a.m. Oct. 13.

Pocatello police said that Drain barricaded himself in a bathroom at the Zener Street residence when they arrived, and after more than two hours of discussions with officers he still refused to surrender. Officers then breached the bathroom’s door and confronted Drain, authorities said.

When Drain still refused to surrender he was Tased by police officers and taken into custody without further incident, police said. When officers arrested Drain, they noticed he had shaved off all of his hair and most of his face was covered in black house paint, police said.

Drain told police last year that he and the woman started arguing and at some point he grabbed a steak knife from the kitchen of the woman’s apartment and stabbed her multiple times, police said.

When police asked Drain about his shaved head and paint-covered face he told them the woman he allegedly stabbed liked his hair the most about him and that seeing his long hair in the mirror following the stabbing upset him. So while at the Zener Street residence Drain cut off his hair and then covered his face in black paint.

Drain is due back in front of Naftz for a sentencing hearing on Jan. 19, 2021.

Drain originally faced up to 30 years in prison and to $50,000 in fines.