A Newton man will serve an active prison term of six to eight years following his conviction for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury during Catawba County Superior Court on Wednesday, March 13, 2024.
Joseph Lee Rosales, 23, was given the sentence after pleading guilty to assaulting a male victim at Catawba Valley Medical Center.
The Honorable Daniel A. Kuehnert, Superior Court Judge from Burke County, imposed terms of the arrangement after Rosales entered the guilty plea.
The defendant will serve his incarceration period in the custody of the North Carolina Division of Adult Corrections.
On February 24, 2023, officers from the Hickory Police Department responded to CVMC regarding an assault and reviewed a video recording, minus audio, of what happened.
The video footage showed the defendant and the male victim watching television together. At some point, the victim walked across the room and had his back to the defendant.
Not long after, Rosales walked up behind the victim, put him in a choke hold and pulled him toward the center of the room. The victim appeared to lose consciousness and slumped to the floor.
The defendant then struck the victim’s face and head repeatedly with his fists. The attack stopped when a patient walked in and alerted the hospital staff.
The victim required surgery for injuries sustained in the assault, and his father told the Court that the attack had changed his life dramatically, that he was not the same person.
Rosales offered an apology to the victim’s family, saying, “I’d like to apologize to the family for the pain and suffering I’ve caused. I wish I could take it back.”
Richard Helderman investigated the case for Hickory Police Department. Nancy Lee prosecuted the matter for the District Attorney’s Office with aid from Legal Assistant Amy Bishoff.