Audrey Gomez
A Sweet Home man, who struck a woman over the head with a pipe and cinder block last summer in a local park, was sentenced Dec. 10 to 90 months in prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder.
Kevin Lee Cuomo, 19, pled guilty on Dec. 4 to the charge, which stemmed from the Aug. 16 incident at Northside Park.
Following the incident, police received reports that “a male subject had thrown a cinder block at a female, striking her in the head,” said Police Chief Jeff Lynn. Police officers and medics responded and located Leslie Maynard, 42, of Sweet Home, with traumatic injuries. She was taken to Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries, Lynn said. Later she was taken to Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital.
Charges of first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon against Cuomo were dropped in a plea deal. The sentencing was handed down on Dec. 10 by Circuit Court Judge Carol R. Bispham.
Keith James Rohrbough was Cuomo’s court appointed attorney. The prosecutor was Jonathan D. Crow.
According to court documents, the state filed a notice of intent on Sept. 25 to seek an enhanced sentence because the “loss or harm was significantly greater than typical for such an offence,” and the “offense resulted in permanent injury to the victim.”
On Sept. 30, Rohrbough filed a notice of diminished capacity defense stating the intent “to introduce expert testimony establishing that, at the time of the alleged crime, (Cuomo) suffered from diminished mental capacity.”
On Oct. 13, Crow filed a notice of intent to have Cuomo examined by a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist.
Because of the plea deal, neither the defendant’s nor the state’s expert mental health testimony was used.
At the sentencing, Crow said that Cuomo was angered and upset at the victim for providing him with methamphetamine.
When he met her at Northside Park, he had a 12 inch- to 18-inch-long metal pipe hidden in his jacket. He struck her with the pipe and and hit her with a concrete block, Crow said.
Maynard has suffered permanent injury, Crow said.
Her fingertip was sheared off by the force of the block from a piece of concrete when she put up her hand in defense, and also has head trauma, he said.
“The plea was entered in this courtroom with with me,” Bispham said at the sentencing. “But we’re going over it again for sentencing.”
She said that, in addition to the 90-month mandatory sentence for the class A felony, Cuomo will be on post-prison supervision for 36 months.
“I’m not going to impose fines because I don’t believe you are able to pay those,” Bispham said.
While Bispham waived fines, she said the victim may file within 90 days for restitution of medical costs.
She asked Cuomo if he had anything to say.
“Well, after it happened I realized what I did and I was under the influence of meth at the time,” Cuomo said. “I prayed that she would live and I turned myself in because I felt bad.”
The victim was not in the courtroom.
He said he would say he is sorry to her if she was, though she probably doesn’t want to hear it.
“I guess ‘sorry’ doesn’t cut it sometimes,” Cuomo said.