Man found guilty of beating his father
The 37-year-old is found guilty of aggravated assault and aggravated assault with intent to kill.
A 37-year-old man was found guilty Tuesday of beating his father with the intent to kill him after he became agitated when he was told to not make a mess in the kitchen.
After just a day of testimony, jurors delivered a guilty verdict for Jonathan Hayes Hackett on charges of aggravated assault, aggravated assault with intent to kill and theft by taking. Sentencing is scheduled for June 5.
Assistant District Attorney Kevin Salmon called Hackett’s father to take the stand, where he spoke on the events leading up to the beating and the injuries he suffered.
According to information presented in court:
Hackett had been living with his father in a 43-foot camper on Peeples Road in Aragon at the time of the July 11, 2017, incident. His father had been seated at a table inside the camper while Hackett was making his dinner. His father told him to clean up after himself and not make a mess, upsetting him.
Hackett then walked to his room at the front of the camper and his father, drinking a mixed drink, lifted his glass and said “cheers,” in an attempt to lighten the mood.
“You’re not going to disrespect me,” Hackett said before he charged his father.
A melee of punches — his father said around 20 to 25 — were let loose and Hackett said he would kill him. His father begged him to stop, but “he just kept cussing and talking crazy,” he said, as he was pushed back against a wall from his chair.
Hackett then left in his father’s truck, eventually turning himself in at the jail almost a week later after a warrant was taken out for his arrest.
His father suffered a broken orbital socket in addition to bruising and swelling on his face, neck and back. He said it took two months for the bruising and swelling to go away, but he continues to have problems with his neck and sees black spots out of his right eye, which was swollen shut from the repeated blows.
“If I would have lost this eye I would have lost my career,” the union crane operator said.
Hackett’s attorney Jonathan Speiser attempted to show his client acted in self-defense and his father was mutually involved in the spat by antagonizing his son.
“So you’re testifying that the one thing that set him off is him making a mess and you saying ‘cheers,’” Speiser asked Hackett’s father, after questioning if he threw anything at his son or said anything else to him.
At one stressed point during cross examination, as Speiser rehashed the specifics of the father’s testimony, Judge Billy Sparks instructed Hackett’s father to answer the questions without comment.