MISSOULA – Paul Ekstedt was sentenced to 12 years in prison after assaulting a well-known Montana Special Olympics athlete with a baseball bat.
Ekstedt, 27 years old, was sentenced to 20 years in the Montana State Prison, with eight of the years suspended, by Judge John Larson on Friday after he pleaded guilty to assaulting Gary Fuller.
Ekstedt assaulted Fuller on June 14th at approximately 6 p.m. Fuller and a group of friends were leaving a home to go eat dinner, when, according to several witnesses, Ekstedt approached Fuller and hit him in the head with a baseball bat.
One of the friends Fuller was going out to eat with spoke to police and identified Ekstedt as the person who assaulted Fuller. She also said that she was in a relationship with Ekstedt and that there had no confrontation between him and Fuller before that time. She also said that Ekstedt had been acting “strange” for the last week and a half.
Ekstedt was found nearby and according to court documents, officers had reason to believe that he was under the influence of an “unknown intoxicating substance.”
There is still no word on a possible motive for the attack.
The assault left Fuller hospitalized for several days with extensive head injuries.
Fuller’s mother and sister were both in court to testify and said that Fuller came extremely close to losing his life or sustaining permanent brain-damaged.
Fuller’s family said it was a trying time for the family and that they are lucky to still have Gary with them.
“It was such an emotional roller coaster those first few days,” Fuller’s sister Heather Conrad said. “Taking victory where we could, whether it was seeing Gary open his eyes, having him sleep soundly for a few hours, having him recognize us, was nothing short of a miracle.”
Ekstedt initially pleaded not guilty to the charges but eventually reached a plea deal with the County Attorney’s office.
- Reported by Connor McCauley
