“This is a mistake and I promise a mistake I’ll never make again,” Battles said.

Attorney Jim Parkman, who represented Battles in court, made multi-faceted arguments on why he believed the court should issue a sentence outside the guidelines, which included his client’s young age of 23 years old and how he’s worked all his life and more recently on the last leg toward becoming a nurse. Attorney Derek Yarbrough also represented Battles in court.

“This case started out as what I would characterize as a college type prank, and went bad,” Parkman said.

Parkman told the court Battles and Buchanan had been moving around, not stealing, trailers on the federally owned campground. He told the court his client didn’t intend to steal from or hurt anyone.

“This is a young man that’s never had any problems with the law, zero ever,” Parkman said. “Sending him to prison is not going to be beneficial to this young man. Mr. Battles has already lost a lot, and he’ll lose a lot more. He can no longer go into nursing as a convicted felon. He has been marked with a stamp on his head as a felon.”

Attorney Shaun McGhee, who represented Buchanan in court, also asked the court to issue a sentence outside the guidelines, primarily based on his client’s health condition.