Convict Really Doesn't Like Hearing His Sentence

An Ohio man who apparently didn't like hearing his prison sentence allegedly reacted by turning and sucker-punching his attorney out cold, Fox 8 Cleveland reports. David Chislton, 42, had just heard his 47-year prison sentence Tuesday when he allegedly socked attorney Aaron Brockler in a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas courtroom. "I turned in to talk to him, and I just felt a swoosh and saw stars," says Brockler. "And I remember waking up underneath the trial table." Judge Nancy Margaret Russo had sentenced Chislton on almost a dozen charges including felonious assault and aggravated arson for holding his girlfriend at gunpoint, pistol-whipping her, and setting his apartment building on fire during a 2017 hourslong standoff with police, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

Additional charges were filed based on later police findings, like Chislton's sexual activities with his step-daughter and the death of a dog, per WKYC. As for the alleged courtroom assault, deputies and a police detective pounced on Chislton as he and Brockler fell to the floor—where the convict also allegedly bit his lawyer's leg before a prosecutor pulled Brockler away. Seems the whole thing was made possible by handcuffing Chislton in front, giving him full range of motion, rather than behind his back. Brockler, whose face was cut, showed off a little dry wit afterward: "It was pretty fun," he told a reporter. But Russo appeared shaken: "People don’t understand what we go through in this building on a daily basis," she said, fighting off tears. Charges against Chislton related to the courtroom attack are pending. (More assault stories.)