CLEARFIELD – A Clearfield man who shot himself in the leg, then fought with personnel at the hospital was sentenced to state prison Tuesday during colloquy court.
Brandon Edward Hutson Sr., 34, pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault, as well as misdemeanor counts of person not to possess a firearm, possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of recklessly endangering another person.
President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman sentenced him to serve a total of two to five years in state prison.
The charges stem from an incident on Feb. 4 in Clearfield Borough.
Police received a call that a man at Penn Highlands Clearfield with a gunshot wound was “not being cooperative with staff,” according to the affidavit.
When officers made contact with him, he “became extremely hostile, at some points filming officers with his cell phone.” He demanded to know if he was being detained and was told yes, because of his actions with the staff.
He then became more hostile, refusing to answer questions as to who had shot him. He got out of the bed and put himself in a corner before challenging the officers to “come get him.”
They were able to get hold of him, but he immediately resisted, which resulted in a piece of hospital equipment falling to the ground.
As they put him back in bed, he continued to want to fight. Eventually he calmed down and told them he was attempting to buy marijuana from two men and one of them shot him. He claimed the incident happened in the alley by Mary’s Bar.
His girlfriend told police Hutson left the apartment and came back injured, saying he must have poked himself with something and she took him to the hospital.
Further investigation proved his story to be untrue. A downstairs neighbor of Hutson’s said he heard a gunshot from Hutson’s apartment. He commented that he often heard him arguing with his girlfriend.
Police then questioned her again. This time she was cooperative and admitted the two were arguing. When she left the bathroom, she heard the gunshot and looked over at Hutson, who said he had just shot himself in the foot.
She took the gun from him and hid it in a closet. She admitted she had a lot of guns in the residence, registered to her and asked the police to take them. Every one of them was found to be loaded.
Police were able to find blood and a hole in the floorboards that confirmed her story.
Later it was discovered that the bullet had traveled through his leg, through the floor boards and into the downstairs apartment’s ceiling before going through the drapes near the kitchen window and striking a banister before falling to the ground.
Two small children were in the room next to where the bullet entered that apartment.