dme court

A Butler County man was sentenced Thursday for assaulting a man in September at a hotel in Cranberry Township; and for a hit and run in 2024.

Jakob M. Honaker O’Brien, 27, of Mars, was sentenced to serve 12 months minus one day to 24 months minus two days in Butler County Prison followed by 18 months of probation and fined $100 after pleading guilty to a felony charge of aggravated assault filed by township police following a Sept. 24 incident at the Quality Inn.

According to police, a 74-year-old man was walking back to his hotel room when the man walked by O’Brien’s room. O’Brien reportedly exited the room extremely agitated and approached the man.

O’Brien punched the man six to eight times in his face and forehead before the man turned away from O’Brien. O’Brien then reportedly bit the man on his back and neck, breaking the skin and leaving teeth marks, according to police.

Police said the man fell onto his back during the assault and O’Brien got on top of him and strangled him for about 10 seconds before other hotel customers saw and separated the two.

Police said O’Brien repeatedly screamed at the man throughout the incident that he was going to kill him.

The man told police the attack was unprovoked, and the two did not know each other. He was taken to UPMC Passavant in Cranberry Township for his injuries.

O’Brien was given credit for having served 218 days in prison.

Additionally, O’Brien was sentenced to concurrently serve 1 day to 12 months in the county jail, fined $200 and ordered to pay $2,465 in restitution after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of accidents involving damage to an attended vehicle and a summary charge of harassment filed by township police following a Nov. 1, 2024, hit and run crash on Route 19.

Police said O’Brien drove his vehicle into the rear of another vehicle out of anger and fled.

He was given one day of credit for time served.