Complex sentence: He had the choice to getting off by hiring a big-time lawyer that he could have afforded, but instead, decide to plead guilty, give the child's family some money in damages and serve one month in prison.
Split into simpler sentences: He had the choice of getting off by hiring a big-time lawyer that he could have afforded. But instead, he decided to plead guilty, give the child's family some money in damages and serve one month in prison.