photo by: Richard Gwin

Navinkumar Patel, of Shawnee, looks on in court Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2015, as he waived his right to a preliminary hearing in an attempted first-degree murder case. The 46-year-old owner of Super 8 in Lawrence was accused of stabbing his wife twice in the abdomen at the motel, 515 McDonald Drive, on June 24, 2015. Patel is pictured in front of his interpreter.

The man who stabbed his wife twice last summer was sentenced on Thursday to serve more than five years of close-contact probation.

Navinkumar Patel, 46, of Shawnee, was arrested in June 2015 after stabbing his wife in the abdomen at Lawrence’s Super 8 Motel, 515 McDonald Drive, which he owns. In March he pleaded no contest to felony charges of attempted second-degree murder and criminal threat.

Thursday Douglas County District Court Judge Robert Fairchild ordered Patel to serve 68 months of probation via Community Corrections Intensive Supervision in Johnson County, said Cheryl Wright-Kunard, assistant to the Douglas County District Attorney.

photo by: Richard Gwin

Navinkumar Patel, of Shawnee, looks on in court Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2015, as he waived his right to a preliminary hearing in an attempted first-degree murder case. The 46-year-old owner of Super 8 in Lawrence was accused of stabbing his wife twice in the abdomen at the motel, 515 McDonald Drive, on June 24, 2015. Patel is pictured in front of his interpreter.

Fairchild decided on Aug. 25 that Patel would serve probation, but needed more time to determine the particular details of the sentence.

The decision came after Bradley Grinage, the doctor who performed a court-ordered mental health evaluation, testified that Patel was at low risk for re-offending. That is, so long as Patel stops drinking and continues to take medication, he said.

Patel suffers from bipolar disorder, according to testimony in the case, and the illness was made worse by an addiction to alcohol.

In addition, more than a dozen of Patel’s family members, including his wife, vouched for him in court, and his attorney, John Kerns, told Fairchild that in the Hindu culture of Patel’s family, his wife and children would also suffer if he were sentenced to prison.

Fairchild said then that “the cultural part of it is very significant in this case,” noting that he did not want a prison sentence for Patel to further harm his family.

While on probation Patel will be tracked around the clock by GPS and an alcohol/drug monitor, Wright-Kunard said. He will have court-ordered drug testing and a curfew.

Patel must also participate in case management and treatment, Wright-Kunard said. He will also take his psychiatric medications by injections.