A Germantown man will serve a year in jail for striking a co-worker in the back with a meat cleaver.

Yuan Li, 49, of the 12100 block of Stardrift Drive pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in November and was sentenced to a year in jail in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Feb. 5. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has filed a detainer against Li, meaning he could be deported to China after serving his sentence, his Rockville-based attorney David Driscoll said.

Li, a cook at Szechuan Palace at 12137 Darnestown Road in Gaithersburg, intervened in an argument between a hostess and another cook in the restaurant shortly before 9 p.m. April 17 about food not being ready fast enough, Driscoll said at the sentencing. The cook, a 46-year-old Rockville man, hit Li on the head with a metal ladle and drew blood, Driscoll said, and the two men were separated.

The two cooks ran into each other behind the restaurant about 20 minutes later and Li went inside to get the cleaver because the cook had made a face at him, Assistant State's Attorney John Lalos said. Li chased him and "slid the knife across his back," Li said in Chinese through an interpreter at the sentencing.

The cook then threw stones at Li's car as Li prepared to drive home, Li said. Li, who no longer had the knife, chased the cook on foot and kicked him, Li said. The cook was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and has not regained full use of his right arm, Lalos said.

"Reflecting, I feel very ashamed," Li said through an interpreter, adding that the fight occurred on the first anniversary of his mother's death. Li asked for a short sentence so he could return to his family in China sooner. "I'm [nearly] 50 years old, still fighting and doing stupid things like this."

Li had previously been sentenced to probation before judgment for driving while intoxicated, Lalos said.

Judge Terrence J. McGann noted the role the 46-year-old Rockville man had played in the attack by instigating the fight and said Li "clearly acted out of character" and "had the self-restraint to take one hacking motion to his back" instead of killing him.

"What does the victim think is going to happen when he whacks someone in the head?" McGann said. "...He's got to know that something's going to follow. It's certainly what I would call understandable retaliation."