(Spirit Lake)– Sentencing was held this (Monday) morning in Dickinson County District Court for a an Arkansas man charged in connection with an altercation in April of last year outside a Milford gentleman’s club.
John Swan pleaded guilty previously through a plea agreement with the state to a charge of willful injury…a class “D” felony…in connection with an altercation he had with a man identified as Philip Hasselbrook.
It was part of an altercation that resulted in the death of 25-year-old Matthew Begtrup of Sioux Falls.
Under the plea, which was accepted this (Monday) morning by District Judge David Lester, Swan received a suspended five-year jail term. Instead, he was placed on probation for three years and ordered to pay Hasselbrook’s medical bills of 2,167-dollars.
Assistant Dickinson County Attorney John Martin told Judge Lester this (Monday) morning the plea agreement was offered by the state in exchange for information from Swan that implicated Scott Adair as having the dealt the lethal blows that fatally injured Begtrup. Adair is currently serving prison time in the case.
When asked this (Monday) morning by Judge Lester as to why he would get in the middle of such an altercation, Swan said he couldn’t give an explanation.
