Intruders sentenced in stabbing
Adam Bell stood quietly behind his wife Thursday in Butler County Court.
Without Jessica Bell — and her years of nursing experience — he likely would be dead.
And so he allowed her to do the talking as the man who tried to kill him in a botched home invasion in 2014 was sentenced. Jeremiah McGrady, 19, pleaded guilty to robbery and attempted murder and will spend 12 to 25 years in prison.
Younger brother, Zechariah McGrady, 18, pleaded guilty to participating in the robbery, and will spend 7 to 20 years in prison.
On the advice of their respective attorneys, neither brother spoke in court.
But Jessica Bell spoke passionately.
“These men came into our home knowing full well we were there that night. They held a gun to my husband's face and repeatedly stabbed him with an 8-inch knife in our backyard attempting to kill him,” she said.
“They had been robbing our community for months before this break-in. They went out prowling armed with the intent to kill whoever got in their way.
“The community as well as our family needs to see justice served for these crimes. Men like the McGrady brothers need to be off the streets.”
According to court records, the McGradys from Fairview Township donned masks and dark clothing and broke into the Bells' house on Olive Street in Karns City.Adam and Jessica Bell, and their young children were in the house asleep. When the 34-year-old homeowner awoke to get a drink of water he confronted the intruders, and Zechariah McGrady pointed an Airsoft pistol at him.An altercation over the gun began in the house but moved into the yard, where Jeremiah McGrady stabbed Bell with a knife that the brothers reportedly had ordered off the Internet only a week prior.Bell was stabbed numerous times in his organs and lungs. In one case, the knife went through his skull and 4½ inches into his brain.Afterward, Zechariah McGrady returned and “kicked the victim in the head,” prosecutors say.Jessica Bell, awakened by the screaming, witnessed the attack on her husband then went to call 911. Since the brothers had stolen the family's cellular phones, she had to run to a neighbor's house to make the call.“When I returned, Adam was laying face down in our kitchen in a pool of blood,” she said.While waiting for help, Jessica Bell used her nursing skills, bath towels and the help of others to apply pressure to the many wounds. Surgeons later said Adam Bell likely would have died had Jessica Bell not known the right steps to take until medical personnel took over on a flight to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.Jessica Bell, covered in her husband's blood, said waiting in the emergency room for the outcome of a five-hour emergency surgery was excruciating. The couple has three children, who at that time were 6, 3, and 1.“I had no idea how to tell my children that their dad was stabbed to death, in the middle of the night, over a couple of iPhones,” Jessica Bell told the judge.Adam Bell survived that surgery and the many others that followed. To this day, he continues to have seizures from his brain injury that prevent him from working, driving, or even being alone with his children.“Our life will never be the same,” said Jessica Bell, who was accompanied by a dozen friends and family in court.Some of those people helped stop Adam Bell's bleeding the night of the attack.
