Teen gets 9 years in prison for attack

By Brad Bauer, bbauer@mariettatimes.com
Watching from the courtroom as his attacker was sentenced to nine years in prison Wednesday, an elderly Marietta man leaned over to his daughter and whispered, “Good.”

As far as Homer Lee is concerned, that’s one down and one to go.

Lee, 69, of 777 Buckeye Ave., was asleep in his bed when two men broke into his home around 1 a.m. Jan. 3. He was violently attacked during the incident.

Ricky Boice, 19, of 120 Elmwood Ave., pleaded guilty to assaulting the man and was sentenced Wednesday. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Boice’s accomplice, Joshua Burkhart, 19, of 300 Alderman St., was found guilty during a trial last month of burglary and robbery out of the incident. He is set to be sentenced at 8:30 a.m. Friday.

It appeared to take some time for the sentence to sink in for Boice. The teen initially showed no reaction, but after a few minutes he sank back into his chair and gazed at the ceiling.

Boice’s attorney, Rolf Baumgartel, called the incident “out-of-character” for his client. He said Boice was high and drunk at the time of the attack. Lee was attacked because Boice feared the man was waking up and that he might have a gun, Baumgartel said.

Lee’s lower eyelid was torn down to his cheek during the attack, which required surgery to repair. He still has vision problems because of the injury.

Boice offered an apology during the 8 a.m. hearing.

“I’d like to say I’m sorry for what I’ve done,” he said. “I’d like to take it all back. It was never my intention to cause any harm. I didn’t want that.”

Lee’s daughter, Julia Freeland, ripped into Boice during the hearing. She said her father not only suffered physically, but that the incident cost him a great deal of his independence. She said since the attack her father has been afraid to stay alone at his home.

Freeland recalled testimony from the Burkhart trial where a witness said Boice thought he had killed Lee.

“Just as Ricky Boice thought he might have killed my father, my father thought he was going to be killed,” she told Washington County Common Pleas Judge Susan Boyer.

Freeland asked for the maximum penalty, 10 years in prison. Instead, Boyer went with the prosecution’s recommendation of nine years.

Washington County Prosecutor Jim Schneider said he wouldn’t recommend the maximum because Boice admitted his actions and agreed to plead guilty.

Even though Burkhart wasn’t the main aggressor in the attack, he faces up to 20 years in prison at his Friday hearing. That’s because he turned down a plea offer and lost at trial.

The men were identified as suspects after police tracked two sets of footprints in the snow outside Lee’s residence to a nearby convenience store. Security camera footage and a description provided by a store clerk led to their arrest.