A Northeast resident pleaded guilty on Sept. 3 to assaulting two senior men in front of the victims’ grandson in the courtyard of a local apartment complex.
John Murray, 55, was due to stand trial for the April 25 beatings in Common Pleas Court until seeing an enlarged photo of one victim’s bloody face that had been taken in a hospital shortly after the attack, according to the District Attorney’s office. Assistant DA Lauren McHale had submitted the photo to the court as evidence. That victim was treated for a broken orbital bone in the face.
The assaults occurred at the apartment complex where one of the victims lived in the 7th Police District. Prosecutors did not disclose the specific location or the identities of the victims, who were aged 69 and 72. The grandson was 3 at the time.
The victims were walking in the courtyard when Murray approached them and initiated a confrontation, alleging that one of the seniors had looked into Murray’s apartment window, the DA’s office said. Seeing the confrontation, the child witness began to cry. When one of the grandfathers tried to comfort him, Murray used his hand to strike him in the face. When the other grandfather tried to aid the initial victim, Murray also struck him repeatedly in the face and threw him to the ground.
Murray then picked up a rock and used it to strike the second victim in the face several more times. Police arrested Murray one day later on a lone aggravated assault charge. On July 1, authorities added a simple assault charge related to the other victim. Murray pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, simple assault and possessing an instrument of crime.
Murray is free on $10,000 bail pending a Nov. 24 sentencing hearing before Judge Edward Wright. He faces a mandatory minimum two-year prison sentence because of the victims’ ages. ••
