A 36-year-old Oxon Hill man was sentenced to 40 years in prison for sneaking up on the mother of his two children and attacking her with a hammer.
Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge Nicholas E. Rattal sentenced Thomas Richard Smith to life in prison with all but 40 years suspended. Smith pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder for a violent attack against his ex-girlfriend, a 28-year-old woman also from Oxon Hill.
The former couple have two children together, ages 4 and 5. Prosecutors said the two dated for nearly fix years and that he abused her repeatedly during that time before she broke up with the man and ordered him to move out of their apartment.
“This sentence and this young woman’s courage to face her attacker is one woman’s triumph over seven years of terror,” said State’s Attorney Glenn F. Ivey.
Prosecutors said the ex-girlfriend had just left her apartment when Smith grabbed her from behind and dragged her down the stairs with a hand over her mouth to muffle any screams. He forced her into a dimly lit, lower stairwell area out of public view and then punched her in the stomach and face. He then repeatedly struck her in the head with a hammer.
The woman found in a pool of blood by her sister and 5-year-old daughter, police said.
She was taken to Fort Washington Hospital with a skull fracture above her left eye, a laceration to the right rear top of her head, severe bruising and swelling of her left hand and left shoulder, and a fractured left hand. She was hospitalized for four days.
After the attack, Smith went to the victim’s car, placed his hammer and his bloody shirt in the trunk, and then drove from the scene. After the attack, the defendant immediately confessed to his friend that he beat the victim because he was upset over their recent breakup and that he was now “going on the run,” prosecutors said.
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