The Big Fat Show Smacktard Of The Day
08/20/08
Greensburg man guilty of using gnome as weapon
A Greensburg man was convicted Tuesday of using a 2-pound concrete garden gnome as a deadly weapon in a February attack against his 16-year-old stepdaughter.
 Charles S. Morrison, 31, of Mt. Pleasant Street was found guilty of five criminal charges, including a felony count of aggravated assault for throwing the dwarf-like statue through a glass door.
Shards of glass from the door struck Kelsey Anderson, leaving a laceration above her right eye.
The gnome, about a foot tall, wore a hat, a blue shirt over a bulging stomach and a wide grin as it sat on a table in open court throughout the two-day trial. Morrison and the weapon were separated by about 2 feet of table, with the gnome facing the defendant.
Anderson, who was in the home with her stepfather early the morning of Feb. 14, told jurors yesterday that a drunken Morrison threatened to hit her with a kitchen chair and called her a series of offensive names before she took action.
"I pushed him out the door, he stumbled and shut the screen door. He threw the gnome at the glass. It shattered everywhere, and the glass hit me in the face," Anderson said.
Prosecutors said Morrison purposely reached down, picked up the gnome and launched it back into the house at Anderson in a rage that stemmed in part from problems he was having with his wife.
Before the gnome became involved in the altercation, Morrison smashed a telephone and cut the phone lines into the house, Anderson testified.
Morrison did not testify. But defense attorney Eric Hoffman told jurors there was no intent to injure Anderson with the garden statue. Morrison tripped on his way out of the home, picked up the gnome and threw it in frustration, Hoffman argued.
It took a Westmoreland County jury of six men and six women 90 minutes to find Morrison guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of simple assault, reckless endangerment and child endangerment. Jurors acquitted Morrison of a second charge of aggravated assault.
Assistant District Attorney Chris Flanigan said Morrison could be sent to prison for up to 10 years. Westmoreland County Judge Rita Hathaway will sentence Morrison in three months.
Morrison already is in prison. He was sentenced on Feb. 6, a week before the gnome incident, to serve 15 months to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to his sixth drunken driving offense since 1997.
Westmoreland County Judge Debra A. Pezze ordered Morrison to report to jail on Feb. 14, hours after he was arrested for the garden gnome assault. |
