Local man sentenced for brutal assault

Home City News Local man sentenced for brutal assault

Lucas McDaniel was sentenced Oct. 29 for the July assault of his wife.

“It was probably one of the worst assaults I’ve seen,” said Public Safety Director Christopher Gutowski. “That’s why the charge is so high. Assault with intent to do great bodily harm is third highest on the scale, after attempted murder and murder.”

McDaniel, 24, was also charged with the malicious destruction of police property and assault with a dangerous weapon. He was sentenced to over 11 years in prison and roughly $1,400 in fines to the state of Michigan, the City of Hillsdale Police Department, and the victim.

His 21-year-old girlfriend, Andrea Tyler, was charged as an accomplice in August and sentenced to 30 days in jail and $625 in fines after testifying against McDaniel.

When officers reached the house of the wife, they found her children, aged 6 and 7, sitting on a couch in the living room. She was sitting on the stairs that led to the upper story of her house. The assault took place in her bedroom.

The officers recognized the victim by her voice, but her face was nearly unrecognizable, the police report said.

“Her face was just bludgeoned,” Gutowski said. “They even broke the orbital socket, and she had to be sent out of the area to Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo for medical attention.”

Both eyes were swollen shut and blackening, a stream of blood trailed down the left side of her face from where the skin broke just above the eye. Her lips were bloodied, swelling away from her teeth and making it difficult to speak. There were red marks on her back, shoulder, hip, chest, and hands from where she had been punched, choked, and beaten with her own crutches. Her already-broken left foot and ankle had been re-fractured.

“You wouldn’t even do that to a dog,“ Gutowski said.

Tyler, McDaniel, and two of their friends went to the wife’s house earlier that night after drinking. The two friends left before the assault began, and the children were instructed to stay downstairs.

“He was mad at her and jealous of her for something, so he decided he was going to beat her,” prosecutor Neal Brady said.

They also threatened to kill McDaniel’s wife repeatedly.

The wife placed a couple of 911 calls. When 911 called back, her husband realized the police were on the way. He ran but only after Carrie promised she wouldn’t tell the police who attacked her.

Dogs tracked McDaniel and Tyler across town to Tyler’s parents’ house, where they were arrested. McDaniel was placed in a patrol car, where he began to kick at the door. The interior began to break apart, and the window began to blow out. In the process of transferring McDaniel to another cop car, he lunged at an officer and threatened to go to the officer’s house and kill him.

“We don’t have many bodily crimes in Hillsdale. Campus is safe. The city is safe,” Gutowski said. “Guys like that need to be in prison. It makes the community a little safer.”                                       vcooney@hillsdale.edu