Following a 56-year-old patron into the restaurant’s restroom, the 32-year-old former McDonald’s employee in West Virginia is certain to spend the rest of his life behind bars after stabbing the man many times in the face and neck, stealing his wallet, and leaving him bleeding.
According to documents obtained by Law&Crime, Circuit Court Judge Kenneth D. Ballard sentenced Richard W. Thornton to 100 years in a state penitentiary on Monday for first-degree robbery related to the unprovoked attack. Ballard noted that Thornton had already completed 492 days of service.
Ballard chastised Thornton for the nasty event before imposing the formal penalty.
Ballard allegedly replied, “You attacked a stranger in the McDonald’s bathroom completely unprovoked,” as reported by West Virginia MetroNews. After stabbing him multiple times in the face and neck, you took his wallet. He had to be rushed to the hospital to be treated for these life-threatening stab wounds.”
According to reports, the judge further stated that Thornton’s “history of extreme violence” necessitated such a lengthy prison term.
“Over the years you’ve threatened and chased family members with hatchets and with knives, also EMS workers,” Ballard stated. “Your fixation with knives and your history of extreme violence, I find you a serious danger to this community and a high probability that you will reoffend if I release. I have a duty to protect this community.”
Deputies were called to the McDonald’s restaurant at 105 Crossings Mall in Elkview, West Virginia, at around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 17, 2023, by the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office in reference to a report of a customer who had been stabbed and robbed in the restroom.
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Deputies were informed that the suspect, who was subsequently identified as Thornton, was an employee who had been observed walking away from the scene.
According to the press statement, the victim was taken to the Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) General Hospital in order to receive treatment for “serious facial injuries and stab wounds to the neck.”
Thornton was apprehended by an investigating deputy after he was found at a nearby Speedway.
Because of an incident in 2019 in which he attempted to attack a paramedic while being driven to a hospital in the back of an ambulance, Thornton was on probation at the time of the stabbing.
After being seen “behaving like someone under the influence of drugs” on the side of the road, Thornton was apprehended. He admitted to the authorities that at the time he was using bath salts and methamphetamine.
Thornton was found guilty of attempting to intentionally cause harm to emergency service officers as a consequence of the 2019 incident.
