Man sentenced in attacks on caregiver, father
A New Eagle man will serve a sentence in state prison following his conviction for attacking a caregiver and later attacking his father and threatening him with a set of antlers in two separate incidents last year.
Washington County Judge John F. DiSalle sentenced Arthur P. Benoit III, 27, of Applewood Drive, March 15 to 1½ to three years for aggravated assault against an employee and simple assault.
On the same day, DiSalle also sentenced Benoit to four to 12 months on each of three charges – terroristic threats and two counts of simple assault. DiSalle also ordered a year of probation on a charge of criminal mischief, according to court records. On a charge of harassment, DiSalle ordered no further penalty.
Benoit will serve the various prison sentences consecutively for a total of 2½ to six years.
Monongahela police filed both sets of charges. The first stemmed from a Jan. 26, 2015, incident when Benoit called police to his father’s Hudson Avenue home, claiming his father’s nurse was stealing and she had slapped him when he confronted her.
When an officer arrived, the caregiver told police she got scared when Benoit charged at her, so she slapped him. He then shoved her into a door frame.
A few weeks later, police responded to a domestic disturbance at the same house. In that incident, Benoit interrupted a phone call between his father and another family member by breaking the back off the older man’s wheelchair and throwing his phone at the wall. Police said he also hit his father several times with a pillow before grabbing a plaque mounted on a set of antlers off the wall and said, “I’ll kill you.”
Benoit told the officer he didn’t intend to kill his father, but wanted to scare him.
Court records show Benoit waived his right to jury trial in both cases and was found guilty Nov. 20.