Man guilty of assaulting senior with tire iron
Surveillance videos that captured a man attacking a 61-yearold with a tire iron in downtown St. Catharines are expected to be played in court when the offender returns for sentencing.
Seth Woelke, 20, appeared in Ontario Court of Justice in Welland on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
On April 2, court heard, the victim was sitting in the front passenger seat of truck parked on James Street, awaiting the return of a friend who had gone into a nearby bank.
In a video, to be played in court
when the Fort Erie resident returns for sentencing, Woelke walks up to the truck and the two men began chatting.
The conversation dissolves into a heated exchange and the defendant grabs a tire iron from the victim’s hands and strikes him repeatedly.
He leans into the vehicle and opens the door and continues to strike the victim with the tire iron before pulling him from the truck.
The victim falls face-first onto the sidewalk and is knocked unconscious. Woelke then drops the bar and walks away.
The victim regains consciousness and climbs back into the pickup truck. When his friend returns from the bank, he notices the man is bleeding from his head.
The man was transported to a local hospital in critical condition.
The assault with a weapon charge is unrelated to the attack in St. Catharines. That matter occurred two days later at a Fort Erie housing complex.