Brennan Michael Morrison

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An Estero man who threatened his former girlfriend’s mother with a knife during a road-rage incident in North Naples was given a break Monday after the victim said she didn’t want a conviction to hurt his future.

Collier Circuit Judge Fred Hardt sentenced Brennan Michael Morrison, 26, to three years’ probation after he pleaded no contest to aggravated stalking.

Hardt agreed to withhold an adjudication of guilt, as long as Morrison adhered to all conditions of probation, including staying away from his former live-in girlfriend and her mother.

Assistant State Attorney Rob Denny told the judge the mother had known Morrison since childhood.

“She wanted punishment, but with a chance for him to have no stain on his record,” Denny told the judge.

Morrison faced up to five years in a state prison on the second-degree felony, but was sentenced as part of a plea agreement negotiated by Denny and defense attorney John Thomas Cardillo Jr.

The plea deal requires Morrison to undergo random drug and alcohol tests and a psychiatric evaluation at his expense, and prohibits him from having any guns.

Denny said the mother, who wasn’t in court, agreed to the plea deal, which allows Morrison to terminate probation in 1 1/2 years if he doesn’t violate any conditions.

A morose Morrison mumbled throughout the hearing, telling the judge he understood he was waiving his rights to a trial. His past criminal record involves misdemeanors: a marijuana possession conviction that led to a violation of probation and two charges of possessing drug paraphernalia that led to no convictions due to a judge withholding adjudications of guilt.

Collier County sheriff’s reports provide this account of the stalking incident:

About 2:15 p.m. May 5, Morrison showed up at Beall’s, at 3701 U.S. 41 E., and asked to speak to an employee, the mother. She refused and asked him to leave, but he threatened to kidnap her daughter if she didn’t talk to him. She again asked him to leave and he did.

When she left work at about 4:30 p.m., he followed her in his Jeep. While she was stopped at a red light at Goodlette-Frank Road at Granada Boulevard, he got out of the Jeep, walked up to her vehicle and tapped on her window with a knife. Fearing for her safety, she sped through the red light and went home.

After she arrived, he called her cell phone and told her to look out her window. He was in front of her home.

She called deputies and he was arrested hours later on charges of aggravated stalking and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, but has been free on $75,000 bond since May 7, a day after he was booked in jail.

The State Attorney’s Office didn’t pursue the assault charge.