A Ware man who brutally attacked the mother of his child in front of the Northampton Police Department in 2023 pled guilty in Hampshire Superior Court as part of a plea agreement and will serve seven to 10 years in prison.
Russell Mayo, 42, entered the court cuffed at both the wrists and ankles before he told Judge Jeremy Bucci that he had agreed to plea guilty to charges of armed assault to murder, mayhem, violation of abuse protection order, reckless endangerment of a child and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Though the survivor of the attack was not present in the courtroom, prosecutor and Assistant District Attorney Erin Aiello indicated the woman was satisfied with the sentencing.
At a status review conference held on Tuesday prior to Friday’s sentencing, Aiello also laid out the facts of the case in detail. On October 19, 2023, Mayo had arrived at the station shortly after 2 p.m. to exchange custody of his three-year old son with the child’s mother. The woman had a restraining order against Mayo, and had previously expressed concern that Mayo wanted to kill her, hence the decision to do the exchange in front of the police station. When the mother began discussing how she had given their son an inhaler, Mayo dumped hot coffee on her, repeatedly saying “sorry about that,” before stabbing her several times with a pair of needle nose pliers in front of their child. The woman suffered numerous wounds to her head, neck and hands before nearby bystanders managed to pull Mayo away from her and police quickly arrived at the scene. Aiello also on Tuesday played a video of the incident using footage from the Northampton Police Department station.
“She did everything she could to ensure her safety. She had pickup and dropoff done at the police department. It was done in broad daylight at 2 p.m., she had multiple orders in place to ensure her safety. Despite all of that, this incident still occurred,” Aiello said. “This would have been a homicide but for the intervention of those bystanders.”
Though the woman did not address the court directly, Aiello spoke on her behalf, describing the impact on her physical and mental health, leaving her unable to work and having to file for bankruptcy.
“She really has no words, and she shouldn’t have to have words, because the facts speak for themselves,” Aiello said.
Mayo’s attorney, David Hoose, defended his client during the status conference on Tuesday. Though Hoose did not deny Mayo’s guilt in attacking the woman, he described Mayo as being “deeply sorrowful” of his conduct and after being held in prison without bail since the incident, and that Mayo had a well-documented history of not resorting to violence. He also noted that Mayo had previously suffered a traumatic brain injury that affected his mental state.
“I think this is the first time I have ever had a case where I can tell the court I can demonstrably prove that this is aberrational behavior,” Hoose said. “If his mind was clear as to what he was doing, there is no way he would ever had done this in front of his son.”
Hoose also read contents of a letter Mayo had written expressing his remorse for the attack.
“I wish she would forgive me, but I understand if she can’t,” the letter stated. “I want to apologize to [my son] for not being able to provide the stable, happy loving home that I wanted so badly.”
The the commonwealth had asked for a sentence for 12-15 years for Mayo, Bucci sentenced him to seven to 10 on Friday, along with a probationary period where me must stay 100 yards away from both his son and the child’s mother. Bucci emphasized however that the sentence could not place a value on the injuries sustained by the victim in the case.
“That wasn’t my task, and I didn’t endeavor to do that, because any number would have been insulting, frankly, to any victim that faced this kind of an assault,” Bucci said.
Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.
