LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas motel owner who nearly stabbed his wife to death last summer has been sentenced to probation, in part because of the cultural ramifications his incarceration would have had on his family.

An attorney for 46-year-old Navinkumar Patel told Shawnee County District Judge Robert Fairchild on Thursday that in the Hindu culture of Patel’s family, his wife and children would essentially be “ostracized” if he were sent to prison.

The Lawrence Journal-World  reports Patel pleaded no-contest in March to attempted second-degree murder and criminal threat for stabbing his wife in the abdomen at the Super 8 he owns in Lawrence.

A doctor testified that Patel suffers from bipolar disorder, which was made worse by alcohol addiction.

Terms of probation have not been determined.