Apr 13, 2016 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – Frank P. Oleary, of Washington Township, apologized in court Wednesday to the man he tried to kill with a farm tractor two years ago.

“Bob, I’m sorry,” Oleary said, addressing the man who attended Oleary’s sentencing. “I hope you heal. I hope I heal. I just want this to be over.”

Oleary, 61, of 1101 Garner Run Road, was sentenced Wednesday to 4½ to 10 years in a state prison by Greene County Judge Lou Dayich for attempting to kill Robert Clay, of Allegheny County, in October 2014.

Oleary pinned Clay between a pickup truck and the tractor Oleary was operating after Clay drove his truck onto a gas well access road on Oleary’s property.

Two witnesses told police they were following Clay onto the property in a separate truck when Oleary rammed it with a Kubota tractor, according to court documents.

The witnesses’ truck stopped and Oleary allegedly drove around the vehicle, while cursing and yelling “I will kill you” to Clay, according to the criminal complaint.

The two witnesses said Oleary struck Clay, who was standing outside his vehicle, with the bucket of the tractor, crushing his arm and pinning him against the driver’s side of his truck, police reported. Oleary then got out of the tractor and struck Clay in the face several times, according to the complaint.

Clay testified in court Wednesday he tried to move out of the way before the front loader hit him.

“If he had hit me full-on as he had intended, I have no doubt that he would have killed me by crushing my chest into my pickup truck,” he said, while reading a statement in court. “Every bone in my right arm was broken.”

Clay, who was taken by ambulance to Washington Hospital, also said he had two broken ribs, a broken nose and had a bone protruding through his arm. He was in the hospital for 12 days.

State police filed charges of attempted criminal homicide, aggravated assault, simple assault, terroristic threats and criminal mischief against Oleary. The criminal homicide charge was withdrawn as part of a plea agreement. Oleary pleaded guilty to the other four charges.

Clay, who worked in natural gas production for Mifflin Energy, testified he was on the property legally to access five gas wells on Oleary’s property. He said Mifflin has a lease agreement to access the wells and pays royalties to the gas owners.

Oleary filed a lawsuit two years ago, arguing the lease was no longer valid, but the lawsuit was dropped in 2014 before the criminal incident.

When Oleary testified about the day of the attack, he recalled his frustration at the volume of trucks that use the access road.

“It was just like a traffic jam in the city,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Oleary said when he saw Clay, he asked to speak with him, but did not receive a response and believed Clay to be ignoring him. Oleary testified that, after the incident, he did not call for an ambulance or police because he believed Clay and the two other men had already left.

Clay has since regained the use of his right arm, but has not returned to the site, saying that he’s afraid he’d be attacked again if he did.

“If he could do this to me, who else is at risk?” Clay said in court.

Oleary’s attorney, Paul Gettleman, called several character witnesses to testify to Oleary’s previously clean background and friendly reputation in the community. Two psychologists, who evaluated Oleary after the incident, said they did not believe him to be a future threat.

In closing arguments, Gettleman asked Dayich to sentence Oleary to house arrest.

“The court has always tempered justice with mercy,” he said.

But Dayich said he couldn’t do that.

“You were really, really close to killing this guy, and that’s the real problem here,” Dayich said. “The reality is that I have to put you in prison.”

Oleary will also have to pay a $500 fine and more than $1,300 in restitution for the damage he caused to both pickup trucks.