Assailant in 2024 hammer attack gets 10-15 years in prison
NEW PHILADELPHIA – The man who beat a Dover gas station clerk with a hammer back in 2024 will spend 10 to 15 years in prison for the violent, bloody attack.
Judge Michael Ernest on Tuesday sentenced 39-year-old John McNutt for attempted murder. He said McNutt hit the clerk 16 times in the head before she was able to escape.
“She was a target that you thought you could take advantage of,” Ernest said. “I don’t think it’s just a random act that you happened bump into her at the Speedway. You went there with a hammer, and you went there to carry out this crime.”
Prosecutor Lacy Felix said the two knew each other as McNutt was a regular customer at the Speedway on South Wooster Avenue. She and Ernest said robbery was not the motive.
“When asked why he did this, Mr. McNutt stated, … ‘To watch someone else physically hurt like I was being made to inside,’” Felix said.
At sentencing, McNutt said he didn’t know what to say other than, “I shouldn’t have done it… I wish I would have just turned around and walked away.”
The victim (WJER is not naming her for her privacy) said she suffers physically and mentally from the attack. She has nightmares and goes to counseling for PTSD.
“When I touch my head and feel the scars from where all I was hit with a hammer, they are still tender,” she said. “It makes me think the very traumatic event that I went through never should have happened. I deal with headaches. I don’t even feel safe going to work in the public again.”
McNutt pleaded guilty earlier this year after he was found competent to stand trial. He will get credit for more than a year that he has spent in jail and in treatment since his arrest in December 2024. His prison sentence will be followed by 5 years of probation.