BAY CITY, MI

— A Bay City man who was approached by a stranger for flicking a cigarette butt, then chased his accuser away with a baseball bat, has received a delayed sentence to a felony charge.

Bay County Circuit Judge Harry P. Gill on Monday, Aug. 12, postponed sentencing

, 27, until June 30, 2014. If Reinshuttle successfully completes the terms of the delay, the felony charge of assault with a dangerous weapon he

will be dismissed and he can instead plead guilty to a 93-misdemeanor count of assault and battery.

According to police, Reinshuttle on the morning of Monday, March 4, was standing by his truck, parked in front of his newly purchased house in the 200 block of Clay Street when 55-year-old Randy Wiechec walked by. Wiechec told police he saw Reinshuttle, whom he didn't know, flick a cigarette butt into the street. Wiechec said he told Reinshuttle the roadway wasn’t a good place for such refuse, according to police reports.

Reinshuttle told Wiechec the butt wasn’t his and the two men argued, both men told police. Wiechec said he called Reinshuttle and his girlfriend crude words and then Reinshuttle retrieved a baseball bat from the back of his truck, police reports indicate. Wiechec and a witness who called 911 said Reinshuttle chased him down the block, swinging the bat at him, police said.

“This all could have been avoided if (Wiechec) would have just minded his own business,” Breanna N. Crawford, Reinshuttle's girlfriend, told police, according to court records. “I can’t believe this was all over a cigarette butt and we don’t even smoke.”

Reinshuttle told police he had come over to paint at his new house and noticed a butt on the sidewalk, picked it up and flicked it into the street, he said.