BREAKING NEWS: James Clayton strikes a deal: 4 YEARS!

Rob D'Amico of the League of Bicycle Voters just sent out an update on James Clayton's court hearing, which occurred today. Short story, he struck a deal copping to 4 charges for a total of 4 years, 4 months in jail, minus 4 months for time-served, and 2 other charges get dropped. Here's what Rob had to say about the whole ordeal:

Clayton appeared in court today, here's the deal they struck:

Two state felony theft charges: 180 days
Two burglary second degree felonies: 4 years
Two other charges not considered and packaged with the deal

So total sentence, 4 years in Texas Department of Criminal Justice jail No stated parole opportunity, but his attorney believes it's possible he could be considered for parole in one year. Clayton also gets credit for time service, almost four months now.

The other item of interest was that Clayton asked to make a statement under oath and proceeded, under questioning from his attorney Ben Dominguez, to say that Layne Severson had no knowledge of his criminal activities, his prior records in Arizona and California, and that she was not a party in any way to his activities.

Prosecutor said she has not spoken with Severson's attorney yet, and so she was unable to speculate on what would happen. Severson's pretrial hearing was postponed until June 2.

Prior to the deal Clayton's attorney spoke with us and was quite interested in what the cycling community would think is a fair sentence.

So what do y'all think? Is 4 years with the possibility of parole in 1 enough for this no-longer-alleged bike thief? Personally, due to the scope of his crimes and the number of people he victimized, I'm more inclined to agree with the punishment set forth by The Mojos:

"This guy better not get away from the cops anytime soon, they will find him IMPALED on a bike frame, hanging from a tree somewhere down on the greenbelt."

I wonder if 4 years is enough time for people to forget. I know if it was one of my bikes he stole I'd still be pissed.

And now to wrap things up in that beloved ATXBS fashion, I bring you one final James Clayton photo montage. I figured since my part in all this started over a few cheezy pictures, it was fitting that it would end the same way. Please fire up this video in the background before checking out the pictures that have made James such a memorable part of local cycling community lore:

Thanks for the memories, James. Glad to see you're finally getting your due, and this stranger-than-fiction tale of thievery, deception and bicycle supervillainy has a happy ending after all.