Baseball bat-wielding attacker in Connellsville pleads guilty
Sentenced to serve four to eight years in state prison
A man who attacked two people with a metal baseball inside a Connellsville home on New Year’s Day this year pleaded guilty Wednesday and was immediately sentenced to serve time in a state prison.
Joshua Lee Mulnix, 31, of Connellsville, appeared in Fayette County Court of Common Pleas and pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in connection with the Jan. 1 beating that left one man unconscious and a woman with severe facial injuries.
Mulnix and two other men, Barry Allen Hall and Travis Ray Burnsworth, were accused by Connellsville police of entering the home at 408 S. Ninth St. and attacking the two residents.
After pleading guilty Wednesday morning, Judge Linda Cordaro sentenced Mulnix to serve four to eight years in a state prison. He’s been held without bond at the Fayette County jail since his arrest two days after the assault, so he’ll be given credit for time served. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped more serious charges of attempted homicide, although Fayette County District Attorney Michael Aubele said that did not change much from the sentence they were seeking.
“It was a well-negotiated plea with agreement from the victims. It didn’t really change the amount of time, necessarily, he was looking at with an attempted homicide (charge),” Aubele said. “In a lot of cases, we try to look at circumstances and the ability to gain conviction. There were elements of this case that necessitated us to get a plea here.”
Aubele said investigators believe Mulnix was the attacker using the metal baseball bat, which seriously injured a man and woman in the house. Both victims, who were identified in court documents as Alex Hice and Brianna Williams, were treated at a Monroeville hospital for severe facial injuries they suffered in the attack.
The other two men pleaded guilty earlier this year. Hall, 36, of Dunbar, pleaded guilty in May to several charges involved in the incident and was sentenced to serve one to two years in jail, while Burnsworth, 36, of Dunbar, pleaded guilty last month to trespassing and was sentenced to two years on probation.
“We allege he was the one using the bat,” Aubele said. “(The other co-defendants) got a little bit of consideration for the statements (they) made that ultimately let us get the arrest that we did. We’re satisfied with the result we got today.”
Mulnix’s defense attorney, Jeremy Davis, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.