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YOUNGSTOWN -- Mark C. Clay, 23, of Helena Avenue in Boardman, pleaded guilty to charges of felonious assault and petty theft Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court stemming from a March 24 incident in Boardman.
Mahoning County prosecutors are recommending that Clay get prison "for a period deemed appropriate by the court," according to court documents.
Clay could get about 10 years in prison. He also will be ordered to pay $900 in restitution to the victim, whose name, age and address are redacted from a Boardman police report.
The report states that police were called at 9:38 p.m. to the victim's home in Boardman, where the victim said the assailant assaulted him or her in the head with a crowbar in an upstairs bedroom.
When officers arrived, the victim was bleeding "profusely from a large gash." Officers searched for the assailant, but did not find him in the home.
Officers did find what appeared to be a large crowbar or tire iron in an upstairs sink and a piece of blood-covered fabric in the sink. There also was blood on the bedroom carpet and broken furniture on the floor, according to the report.
While ambulance personnel treated the victim, the victim told police that he or she met the assailant at a fast food restaurant on the East Side, and that he or she did not know the assailant's last name only the name "Christopher."
Police found a backpack in the home that contained a document from Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Adult Probation for Mark Christopher Clay Jr., who was 22 at the time. Police checked information on Clay and found that the information appeared to match the description police got of the suspect, the report states.
The victim said the assailant walked into the bathroom and came back in the room and splashed him or her in the face with an "irritant" liquid that caused his or her vision to blur. Immediately after that, the assailant hit him or her over the head one or two times with the crow bar.
The victim tackled the assailant to the ground and pushed him out of the bedroom and called 911.
While the victim was in the ambulance he or she got text messages from the assailant, saying he was sorry. Texts later stated that the assailant was threatening to allege that the victim raped him if he or she did not drop the charges. The victim later reported four sets of keys had been taken from the home.
Clay was picked up March 29 on a felonious assault warrant in the case and taken to the Mahoning County jail.