Fresno, Oct 10 (THAINDIAN NEWS) In a bizarre incident, a man was looking at a life sentence for having a quarter-sized gang sign tattooed on his 7-year-old son’s hip. However he was relieved to learn that the judge thought that the act was not aggravated mayhem, a charge normally reserved for crippling attacks.

Instead of a life term, Enrique Gonzalez and his friend Travis Gorman will face the lesser charge of cruel and inhumane treatment of a child, in which they might get up to seven years in prison.

“Hallelujah,” said Gorman’s mother-in-law, Alisa Quillen, whose says her own numerous tattoos tell the “story of my life.”

According to court records, during preliminary hearing testimony Monday, Fresno County Superior Court Judge Hillary Chittick questioned whether a small tattoo is a permanent and painful disfigurement worthy of a potential life sentence that comes with a mayhem conviction, then asked to think it over.

The defendants were not charged with the one major crime that defense attorneys thought that they deserved, which is making a tattoo on a child under 18, which in California is a big misdemeanor that carries a six-month sentence.

On Friday, Chittick, a former public defender, questioned Lacy over the legal definition of mayhem and whether a small tattoo, which is being removed, meets the test.

“Say I’m stabbed with a pencil and I have a mark on my hand, is it your contention that anything that creates a visible, permanent injury constitutes mayhem?” she asked.

“It shows this case isn’t about justice,” said Public Defender Manuel Nieto. “It’s about the DA’s ego.”

“Mr. Gonzalez recognizes he could have made a different choice,” Foster said. “As a parent myself, I realize you have to make hard decisions no matter how badly your kid wants something.”