A Butler County judge denied a bail request Friday to get out of jail from a man accused of lodging a hatchet in his ex-fiancee's head.

Dean J. Law, 29, of Apollo, Armstrong County, was arrested June 9 at a farmhouse in Summit Township while police were tending to a woman who had a hatchet lodged into her forehead.

Authorities charged Law in the attack, and he was immediately placed in Butler County Prison. Originally, District Judge Lewis Stoughton denied the bond, and on Friday Judge William Shaffer saw no reason to accept the request to set bail made through Law's lawyer, Justin John-Earl Ketchel.

The hatchet, which Trooper Robert Rottman previously described as a “tomahawk,” penetrated the victim's brain. The victim was hospitalized following the June 9 incident at her family's farmhouse in Summit Township, and she was recently released from the hospital, according to Assistant District Attorney Mark Lope, who is prosecuting the case. The victim was left blind in one eye, according to previous court testimony.

Law is charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, trespass and false identification to law enforcement.

Investigators allege the defendant walked into the home on Bonniebrook Road shortly before 7 a.m., uninvited and unnoticed, and attacked the woman as she slept in her upstairs bedroom. He didn't say a word, according to police, and left.

Several family members were in the house at the time and they eventually found out what happened. One of them called 911.

Rottman, a criminal investigator, went to the home and saw the victim lying on the floor of the living room. An ambulance crew and two patrol troopers were tending to her.

“She did have a hatchet/tomahawk that was still protruding from her forehead,” Rottman said on questioning by prosecutor Amanda Scarpo, a county assistant district attorney.

On Friday, Law's counsel argued that Law wasn't a danger and he asked Shaffer to put him on a monetary bond and to place him on pretrial supervision.

“He's not a flight risk and he has a limited criminal history,” said Ketchel's colleague, Michael Waltman.

Lope disagreed, arguing that Law was accused of committing a “horribly gruesome, premeditated attack.”

He said that Law drove to the victim's residence from his house 30 miles away with the intention to attack the victim. He said that the hatchet used in the attack was originally hanging in Law's home.

Lope also pointed out that when police first arrested Law, the defendant claimed his name was Dean Snow.

“He's unpredictable,” Lope said. “He's a survivalist — he's capable of surviving on his own. We don't know what else he's capable of.”

In Shaffer's denial of the bond motion, he noted that Stoughton found Law to be a danger to society.

“The court has no information to the contrary at this time and, therefore, the motion is denied,” Shaffer said.

During a preliminary hearing, Rottman said that despite the victim's injury, the woman was able to give police a statement: “She said her ex-fiancé, Dean Law, struck her in the head with a tomahawk,” Rottman testified.

She was later flown by medical helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh with the hatchet in her skull. The victim underwent surgery, and the weapon was removed.

In his testimony, Rottman noted the woman “is most likely going to be blind in her right eye. It's still swollen; she can't open it.”

She suffered “severed muscles” in the area of the eye, he said, adding that she “may not ever be able to open it again without more surgery.”

While police investigated the crime scene, Law was seen driving to the area, according to authorities.

The trooper recounted, “I turned around and observed Mr. Law driving toward the house from a field in a red pickup truck.”

The defendant was immediately arrested. Rottman said he spoke to Law in the back of the truck.

“I asked him if he was OK,” the trooper testified. “He said, 'Yes, I feel better. I just released some stress.'”

Based on evidence in the investigation, police suspect Law walked from the field to the house and went in through an unlocked back door. He went up the steps and allegedly attacked his ex-fiancée, who was in bed.

The victim in a later interview with police recalled seeing the defendant.

“She related to me that she was sleeping on her side, something woke her and as she turned to look up,” Rottman testified, “she saw Dean Law standing over top of her. She was barely able to get his name out or didn't get it completely out, and he swung the tomahawk into her head and walked away.”