WILMINGTON, Delaware — A Delaware man has been sentenced to two years in prison for assaulting an elderly Catholic priest.
Joshua August was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty but mentally ill in March to first-degree assault in last year’s attack on 74-year-old Father William Graney. The 26-year-old August also pleaded guilty to third-degree assault of an office worker at Resurrection Parish church in Wilmington.
Investigators said parish employees heard noises and found August punching and kicking Graney in his office. Witnesses said August then poured wine on Graney, hit him with the bottle and sprayed compressed air into Graney’s mouth.
Bishop W. Francis Malooly said Graney had been trying to help the “troubled, homeless man.”
Court documents showed August was upset over “weed” he wanted back, and that he wanted to kill Graney.
