The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Elyria man gets 180 days for stabbing
Jeremiah Donovan was sentenced on June 26 to 180 days in jail and four years of community control in the stabbing of two people in 2015.
Donovan, 29, of Elyria, was found guilty April 21 of attempted murder, four counts of felonious assault and a single count of simple assault in relation to the stabbing of a man and a woman Dec. 26, 2015, outside a bar in the 200 block of North Main Street in Wellington.
Speaking before the sentencing, Donovan’s attorney, James Burge, highlighted the effect Donovan’s military service and his subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder has had on him.
“Jerry Donovan came by this illness in a tough way,” Burge said. “My experience with the experience of a veteran: I always feel as if they’re entitled to a little more consideration because I cannot identify with what they’ve been through.”
Burge cited a section of Donovan’s U.S. Army discharge papers that said he received his PTSD during an infantry attack on the enemy in Iraq.
“This is the infantry, your honor,” Burge said. “This is fasten bayonets stuff. This is something I can’t even identify with and I don’t think the rest of us can.”
Speaking before the sentence was handed down, Donovan apologized for the incident and described his return from the Army.
“They don’t prepare us,” he said. “They gives us counseling to get a job and go to school, but when you’re getting fired at, where every moment you could die, and you’ll have to react a certain way because of that.
“Then you get out and you’re just dumped back into the community most of the time you don’t even know anybody that’s left and you’re just expected to find your own way.”
The male victim’s parents were not happy with the sentence saying their son is now suffering PTSD from the incident.
The victim’s father said this is the second of his children to be stabbed and the assailants not serve a lengthy sentence. He added PTSD should not have weighed into the sentence.
“My dad served three tours in Vietnam and came back,” he said.
The victim’s mother agreed.
“To me, he’s not going to learn,” she said. “My silver lining, I believe, is because I know he will mess up again and he will spend time in prison.”
During the two-day bench trial, prosecutors argued Donovan was angered by the repeated rejection of a woman who bartended at the establishment.
Donovan assaulted the woman outside of the bar, when two men tried to stop him, he stabbed one of them multiple times. When the woman tried to jump back in and stop the assault, she was stabbed herself.
Donovan was out on bond pending his sentencing, but violated that bond and was arrested for menacing by stalking and telephone harassment. He is being held at Stark County Jail.