A Riverside County Superior Court judge reduced the conviction of former California Assemblyman Steve Clute from a felony to a misdemeanor for aiding and abetting in the discharge of a firearm in the 2016 suicide of his wife.

Clute, of Palm Desert, initially faced a felony charge of assisting in the suicide of his wife, Pam Clute, who was a math educator and assistant vice chancellor emerita at UC Riverside. Prosecutors alleged that he provided her with the handgun she used to end her life.

Clute pleaded guilty to the felony firearms charge in October 2018 after coming to an agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office to dismiss the assisted suicide charge.

Judge Harold Hopp ruled Friday that Clute's felony conviction would be reduced to a misdemeanor. Hopp also permitted him to volunteer at UC Riverside as he continues to complete his three years' probation. Hopp told Clute that he could request to have his conviction dismissed once he finished the terms of his probation.

According to a 2017 arrest declaration, Clute called the police on Aug. 21, 2016, saying he'd found his wife with a gunshot wound in their Palm Desert home. During the 911 call, he told the dispatcher his wife suffered from severe pain due to a medical condition and wanted to end her life.

Clute was charged with assisted suicide after investigators determined he called police 45 minutes after he found her body, The Desert Sun previously reported. Clute said the gunshot woke him up, he found his wife's body, and changed his clothes at least three times before calling the police.

"Steven said he had given Pamela the revolver as an option to end the pain she was going through based on a previous discussion they had about using the revolver as an option," the arrest declaration read.

Virginia Blumenthal, Steve Clute's attorney, told The Desert Sun at her client's arraignment in 2017 that Pam Clute had committed suicide because of “severe pain due to a degenerative spinal column.”

“We believe this case is very, very sad,” Blumenthal said in 2017. “Steve and Pam had been married for 40 years and were very, very, very much in love.”

Steve Clute, a former Navy pilot, served in the state Assembly from 1982 to 1992. The Democrat unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1996 and tried to return to the Assembly in 2006 and 2008.

Christopher Damien covers crime, public safety and the criminal justice system. Reach him at christopher.damien@desertsun.com or follow him at @chris_a_damien.