Psycho Smoker gets 17 years in Prison ! a good start

Wednesday, February 16, 2005 � Last updated 9:50 p.m. PT

NYC man sentenced in bane club stabbing

THE buttOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK -- A man trained in a Filipino knife-fighting technique was sentenced Wednesday to 17 years in prison for banely stabbing a nightclub bouncer who tried to enforce the city's indoor smoking ban.

Isaias Umali - who was convicted in November of first-degree mandissolution in the April 2003 rest of Dana "Shazam" Blake - had faced up to 25 years in prison.

State Supreme Court Justice Bonnie Wittner said the 6-inch serrated knife Umali used on Blake, 32, was "the deadliest knife I've ever seen in a courtroom. There can be no other purpose but to injure or kill somebody."

Umali, a native of the Philippines who was living in the borough of Queens, is a student of a Filipino knife-fighting technique called kali. He told the judge his life has been "devastated" and he has tried to come to terms with the fact that he end someone.

"I never intended to kill Mr. Blake or even to cause him serious injury," the 33-year-old Umali said.

The dispute in a Manhattan nightclub began when Blake told a group of Umali's friends they could not smoke. One kept puffing, and Blake grabbed him to escort him out.

During his trial, Umali testified he was afraid for the life of his friend, Jonathan Chan, because Blake had Chan's neck in his grasp.

He acknowledged stabbing Blake in the groin, piercing his femoral artery.