Albemarle man could face 5 years in injury case

An Albemarle County man is facing up to five years in prison after admitting he injured a fellow tenant in a summertime fight.

Ira William Mundie, 35, pleaded guilty Tuesday to unlawful wounding with the intent to cause bodily injury.

Police responded the evening of June 18 to a Minor Mill Road home to find James Andrew Turner III with a cut on his back. Andrew Sneathern, assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said in court that Mundie had been carrying a knife in a waistband holster when he and Turner started fighting.

“[Mundie] had the victim in a bear hug,” Sneathern said in court. “When the victim pulled away from him, the knife sliced him.”

Turner was taken to the University of Virginia Medical Center, where his cut was stitched. Turner and Mundie both lived in the Minor Mill Road home, which was partially split into apartments.

In court Tuesday, Circuit Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. agreed to allow Mundie’s charge to be amended from malicious wounding to unlawful wounding. Sneathern said in court that the unlawful wounding charge was more appropriate because both men were involved in the fight and the injury wasn’t malicious.

Mundie is scheduled to be sentenced May 6. He remains free on a $5,000 bond.