I would like to thank everyone for their concerns for my son & their personal messages to which I am giving all a personal update of how things went.

The person (drug dealer) my son supposively beat up, had no signs of abuse on him the very next day in court. I had also found out that it took the victim 1 hour & 36 minutes to call the police AFTER the incident. In the process of contacting an attorney for guardianship & getting it started before trial, my son hit the panic button & agreed to a plea bargain. ( I had told my son to make sure the case went to trial) The judge, understanding that my son "may" have mental problems promised to sentence him to no more than 5 years & no less than 3 years. Sentencing was held later, AFTER the judge looked at his mental health records...which were subpoenaed into court.

While in court, during sentencing, it appeared the judge didn't want to sentence him to prison at all due to the findings in his mental health records. There was a long discussion between the prosecuting attorney, my sons attorney & the judge. Afterwards the judge sat quietly for a few minutes which seemed to be an eternity to me. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison, minus the time spent in jail which made it 2 yrs 4 months of a prison term he has to serve.

I'm very sad that he was sentenced, but yet relieved it wasn't 10 yrs. Now came the hard part. Once my son was transported to prison, he had told them of his mental health & the medications he was on. The prison didn't believe him! (He was transported on a friday) the following monday I called the mental health in prison, I did this because of a funny feeling I had. I had to fax the prison his mental health records & the meds he was on before they would even give medication to him! "I was told the county would send everything with him & they didn't!" As I was speaking to the mental health personel in prison after they got his mental health records, they told me my son should have been sent to a mental institution NOT prison. (He's on really strong medication which is one of the reasons they needed to confirm his meds). So for now, I am making sure I visit him as often as possible, & making sure he has as much contact with family members as possible & I'm counting down the time for his return.