Home security video helps provide clues in 2020 beating, injuries

A Slatington man was so drunk when he was assaulted by a solar panel installer who was working in his home that he couldn’t explain his broken ribs and other injuries to police — until he watched his home security video the next day.

As the installer, Matthew Eschelman, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Lehigh County Court, he admitted that he could not dispute the video footage, even though he too was intoxicated during the Jan. 24, 2020, incident, so his memory was hazy.

“I did kick and hit him, yes,” Eschelman testified.

Eschelman, 27, of Reading, will be sentenced in April and could face more than two years behind bars. Under the terms of a plea deal, his minimum sentence will be y capped at 12 months. He pleaded guilty before Judge Douglas G. Reichley to simple assault, and no contest to a charge of theft.

The case began with police going to the victim’s home in the 200 block of Hill Street around midnight, after getting a tip from one of Eschelman’s co-workers. They found the man bleeding on his sofa.

“He looked like he’d been in a fight,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Lisa Cipoletti told the judge.

The man told police he didn’t know how he got hurt, and refused medical attention, court records say. He told police that three employees from Trinity Solar had been installing solar panels at his home, and that he recalled drinking with them for most of the day.

The next day, however, he filed a police report after viewing video from his home surveillance system. According to court records, the video showed Eschelman pulling the homeowner on the floor from the kitchen to the living room, before he and another installer threw the homeowner onto a sofa.

As Eschelman punched and kicked the homeowner, he was also screaming and threatening to kill him, the video captured. The other employees tried several times to stop the assault, police said.

When the video ended, the homeowner was on the living room floor. The three employees drove back to the company’s office in Reading, where one of them called 911 to report the disturbance.

The victim also told police that $600 worth of tools were missing from his basement. They were later found in Eschelman’s work van. His attorney, Kate Smith, said Eschelman admitted taking the tools but disputes that they were stolen, believing the homeowner gave them to him.

The victim, who sustained several broken ribs, a head injury and contusions, did not testify during the hearing, which was conducted via Zoom. He will have a chance to address the judge when Eschelman is sentenced.

Eschelman remains free on bail while awaiting sentencing.