BEVERLY — The Appeals Court has thrown out part of a former Beverly man's conviction for breaking a baseball bat over the head of a younger man, then continuing to beat the man with a piece of the bat, back in 2004.
Richard Armstrong, whose lengthy criminal career includes a violent struggle with a Peabody police officer in 2000 and numerous burglaries and assaults, was convicted of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (the Louisville Slugger) and mayhem following a trial in 2005.
He received a seven- to nine-year prison term for the assault charge, followed by three years of probation for the mayhem count.
But in a decision last week, the Appeals Court found that trial Judge Diane Kottmyer had made an error in her jury instructions by failing to tell jurors that in order to convict Armstrong of both charges, they would have to find separate facts to support each charge. That's because assault and battery with a dangerous weapon is a lesser included offense under the law concerning mayhem (the intentional disfigurement of someone).
The Appeals Court found the two convictions were duplicative because they were based on the same set of facts and ordered that Armstrong be resentenced only on the mayhem conviction.
Armstrong, then 30, had just been released from jail after serving 90 days for a violent domestic assault on his girlfriend and her mother and went to the women's Courtney Drive apartment.
A 20-year-old neighbor of the women was there, being tutored by the mother. When he saw Armstrong, he commented about the domestic assault.
That sent Armstrong into a rage. He grabbed the baseball bat and struck the younger man in the head, snapping the bat in two, then continued beating him, delivering at least 15 blows, with the broken bat. He then drove off in his girlfriend's car, where police found half of the bat, covered in blood.
The victim sustained skull fractures and brain hemorrhaging.
Steve O'Connell, a spokesman for Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, said the case is currently being assigned to a prosecutor for review and will be scheduled for resentencing in the near future.
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