Above: Robert English file photo
(Credit: Yuba County District Attorney’s Office)
A Yuba County man has reportedly been sentenced to 11 years in prison for attempted murder in connection with a hammer attack in April of 2022.
According to a press release by the Yuba County District Attorney’s Office, 53-year-old Robert Glen English of Marysville was sentenced in Yuba County Superior Court to serve 11 years in prison for assaulting Leland Ellis with a hammer on April 22, 2022. The sentencing followed English’s plea agreement in June 2023 to attempted murder, in which he agreed to plead guilty to attempted murder and admitted to using a deadly weapon causing great bodily harm.
The incident took place at the Rio Inn. A woman had called 9-1-1 to report that her boyfriend, Leland Ellis, had been struck with a hammer. Upon arriving at the scene, a Yuba County Sheriff’s deputy found Ellis bleeding from two lacerations to his head. According to Ellis, a man — later identified as Robert English — approached him while he was seated in front of his room, claiming that someone had “taken over his body.” English then pulled out a hammer and struck Ellis in the head once with the claw of the tool. After the attack, English fled the scene.
Law enforcement located English a short distance from the Rio Inn and took him into custody. Ellis was transported to Adventist Rideout Hospital, where medical professionals discovered he had sustained a skull fracture and a brain bleed. He was airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center, where he underwent emergency brain surgery and ultimately survived the attack.
The criminal proceedings were put on hold from May 2022 to June 2023, as the Public Defender asserted that English was not mentally competent to stand trial. During this period, English received treatment with the aim of restoring his competency. English ultimately agreed to plead no contest, resulting in a plea agreement for an 11-year prison term, which spared him from the possibility of receiving the maximum sentence of 13 years.
