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Knife-threat sentence handed down

Greenville Police Department

A Greenville man, who already has served two terms in prison, including a life sentence, is headed back to the penitentiary after pleading guilty to threatening local police officers with a knife.

William Arthur Larson Jr. was indicted in March on two counts of aggravated assault against a public servant with a deadly weapon and one count of resisting arrest with a deadly weapon.

Larson pleaded guilty to all three counts Wednesday during a hearing in the 196th District Court.

Under a plea bargain arrangement, Larson was sentenced to 20 years in prison on each of the aggravated assault against a public servant counts and 10 years in prison on the resisting arrest indictment.

The sentences were set to run concurrently.

As a deadly weapon was found to have been used during the commission of the offenses Larson, 44, will have to spend at least half of the sentences, or 10 years, in prison before he can be considered for parole.

The aggravated assault against a public servant charges each carried a maximum sentence upon conviction of up to life in prison.

A fourth charge, of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, was filed against Larson on August 1. Larson was scheduled to also plead guilty to the complaint Wednesday, although the status of the case was not immediately available.

According to a report from the Greenville Police Department, officers responded early on the morning of February 12 to a call from a man who stated that he had been stabbed.

Officers learned that Larson was inside the residence on Jones Street.

Larson allegedly displayed a large knife and moved aggressively toward the officers before being subdued with a Taser and disarmed.

Larson and another Greenville man were indicted by the Hunt County grand jury in September of last year. Each received two indictments for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon/family violence.

William Larson was alleged to have threatened the man and also a female victim, with a hammer on Aug. 4, 2012. The alleged male victim was alleged to have used a pistol to threaten William Larson and another female victim on the same date.

The indictments against both defendants were dismissed in December.

Larson pleaded guilty in 1993 to a charge of aggravated robbery, in connection with a hold-up of a business in the 1800 block of Johnson Street in May of that year.

On November 30, 1993, then-District Judge Paul Banner sentenced Larson — who had previously served a prison sentence for convictions on charges of escape and forgery — to life in prison and ordered him to pay $550,000 in restitution to the victim.

Court records do not indicate when Larson may have been released from prison.