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Thursday, June 2, 2022

Zanesville man sentenced to prison for terrorizing woman

A Zanesville man will spend the next 14 to 19 years in prison for torturing a woman throughout the course of a day while threatening to end her life.

Nickolas McDonald previously pleaded guilty to one first-degree felony count of kidnapping and one second-degree felony count of felonious assault in the matter.

During sentencing, Judge Mark Fleegle noted how the victim indicated she will have to move out of state when McDonald is released due to threats he made to kill the victim and those closest to her, starting with her “precious little boy.”

The crimes occurred in November 2021. The victim reported to deputies that she attempted to leave McDonald’s home when he pulled her purse off her body and ripped her keys from her hands.

McDonald then dragged the victim across the house by her hair and neck, slamming her into objects and causing burns to her feet. They made their way through the house to the kitchen, where McDonald threw the victim to the floor and told her she wasn’t going anywhere that he was going to kill her.

The defendant instructed the victim to get up and take a seat at the table to unlock her phone. The victim instead smashed the phone with a board and destroyed it. Becoming more enraged, McDonald threw the phone at the victim, striking her in the stomach.

The victim told McDonald “I don’t want to die,” and he responded “you better start talking then.”

For nearly 10 hours, McDonald forced the victim to sit at the table against her will, throwing liquids at her when she started to doze off to sleep. At some point, the victim took a handful of pills.

“I knew he was going to kill me,” the victim told detectives, but she did not want McDonald to beat her to death.

The pills caused the victim to become sick, so she went to the bathroom to throw up. While crouched over the toilet, McDonald entered the bathroom and hit the victim in the head. She huddled into a ball near the bathtub to get away from him where he poured cold water on her and punched her several more times in the head and face.

It wasn’t until 7:30 p.m. that McDonald’s uncle stepped in and suggested letting the victim leave the table to take a nap. McDonald allowed her to lay on the couch, then at 9:30 p.m. he told her to go to bed. Since the victim never made it to school to pick up her kids, her sister came to the house looking for her that night. She took the victim home with her, and they contacted the Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office.

The victim was admitted to the hospital for a tear in the inner layer of the wall of her carotid artery. The injury was caused by McDonald when he ripped the victim’s purse from her body.

The victim explained to the Court that the pain and torture she suffered at the hands of McDonald were so terrible that even the lengthy prison sentence he received would never put an end to her fears.

The way cases of domestic abuse and sexual abuse are resolved is often highly affected by the available evidence, Assistant Prosecutor John Litle explained to the Court. Most domestic violence cases are limited by the credibility of the two individuals present in the home during the crime. This case involved the benefit of video evidence of the crime and assisted in the State's argument for a lengthy sentence.

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