Window Cleaner Jailed

Alexander Toth, a window cleaner tried to murder his wife with a claw hammer & knives.

Window cleaner jailed for 17 years for attempting to murder his wife in Torquay street attack: A vengeful husband from Torquay who planned a murderous revenge attack on his wife after they split up has been jailed for 17 years. Window cleaner, Alexander Toth, 45, stabbed his estranged wife Brigitta, 41, in the back three times and bludgeoned her over the head with a hammer during an ambush as she walked to work along the street in St Marychurch in March.

A judge at Exeter Crown Court, who today sentenced Toth for the attempted murder of his wife, said the defendant had not been able to accept their 21-year marriage was over. He said: "You came to the conclusion that you would revenge the wrong you perceived she had done to you. And you would revenge that wrong by killing her." Residents in Hartop Road described being woken shortly before 6am on March 23 by the sounds of a woman shouting for help.

When police arrived they were confronted with the mum-of-two lying on the road outside St Marychurch Primary School covered in blood. Her husband, who had attacked her with two knives and a claw hammer, was sat nearby threatening to kill himself. The victim suffered severe life-changing injuries as a result of the attack and is still receiving treatment in hospital in Plymouth.

Judge Cottle said a psychiatrist's report on Toth found he had 'become obsessed with revenge and planned for some time to kill her.' The judge added: "You had carried out a considerable amount of research on the internet in order to obtain information dealing with broken marriages and you had accessed sites that encouraged you to take revenge. "It was the process of revenge that drove you to do what you did."

The court was told Brigitta was walking to work at Sainsbury's. She was within a few streets of meeting her daughter Pamela, who also worked at the supermarket, and the pair were speaking on the phone at the time of the attack. Judge Cottle said: "You chose your moment when your wife was walking to her place of work at a nearby supermarket and in the early hours of the morning you had planned to attack her as she walked there alone. And in order to carry out that attack you had armed yourself with a claw hammer and two knives. 

"You came up from behind her and you attacked her from behind, stabbing her in the back three times and hitting her on the head with the claw hammer. In so doing you caused her terrible injuries." He said the victim sustained several fractures of her skull together with bleeding to the brain and needed surgery as a result. The court was told she still requires psychological and physiological treatment at the neuro-rehabilitation unit of Mount Gould Hospital Plymouth. She also struggles with her language, vision, sense of smell and taste.

Her daughter said she felt 'broken' by the attack. She said her mother was her best friend but now she sometimes forgot her name. "As a result of this attack she has suffered permanent and severe disability," said the judge. "There is significant impairment to her ability to work, to interact socially and her ability to lead a fully engaged life." He said the couple's two children, aged 20 and 16, had been left with the 'awesome responsibility' of caring for their mother 'in consequence of your murderous attack.'

The judge said if Toth had succeeded in killing his wife he would have been jailed for at least 25 years. But because he 'failed in his mission' the starting point was 23 years, minus seven for an early guilty plea. Toth was told he will serve half of that in jail before being released on licence. Detective Sergeant Chris Rooney of the Major Crime Investigation Team said after the sentence: “Toth's guilty plea will prevent the members of the family having to attend a trial and relive those horrific events, and we welcome the courts sentence.

“The Major Crime Investigation Team conducted a thorough investigation and if it wasn't for the actions of the local community, police officers at the scene, paramedics and the medical teams who provided excellent medical care to his victim, Brigitta, this could easily have been a murder investigation. “I thank everyone who assisted and supported the Police in this investigation including the family who have acted with dignity throughout, and we wish Brigitta well for her continued recovery."

Following the guilty plea on Thursday, prosecutor Rachel Drake said the couple had separated several months before but Toth had then learned Brigitta had a new partner. It was her usual practice to speak to meet her daughter, Pamela, on the way. "Suddenly the phone went dead," said Ms Drake. 'There were no shouts, no crying, nothing."

In the aftermath of the attack both the victim and her husband were taken to hospital. Toth's injuries, inflicted on himself with a knife at the scene, were not as severe as his wife's, the court heard. Doctors assessed him and found he was not suffering from a mental illness at the time. However during the assessment he said he was 'constantly looking things up on the internet and the truth is I wanted to kill her and myself'.

Barry White, mitigating, said Toth was deeply remorseful for his actions. He said the defendant led a quiet, 'small life' with few friends and when the marriage broke down had no emotional outlet or person to talk to. "He is a quiet and unassuming man who lost it and did something terrible and will never do anything like it again," said Mr White. He said Toth worked 55 hours a week as a window cleaner and at a supermarket in Paignton.

Window Cleaning Vice President Gets 10 Years

PITTSBURGH — A former executive of a western Pennsylvania window company has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison for unemployment compensation fraud, and other rip-offs. Forty-six-year-old Lacy Tilley, of Richland Township, was sentenced Friday after telling a federal judge in Pittsburgh his life story, including a past cocaine conviction and an 87-month prison sentence he's currently serving for gun possession as a felon. Friday's sentence will run concurrent to the gun term, meaning he'll be in prison until 2020, minus good time. Tilley ripped off the state unemployment system by having his girlfriend and several other associates illegally collect $39,000 in benefits while they still had jobs. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says Tilley also stole $305,000 from Penn Window Co. while its vice president, and cheated a business landlord out of $123,000 in a bid-rigging scheme.

Richland man given 9-year sentence for unemployment fraud: Typically, when defendants are asked to speak at their sentencing hearings, they apologize quickly and then stop talking. Lacy Tilley, 46, of Richland, decided instead today to tell his life story before U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti sentenced him to nine years and two months in prison for ripping off his employer, clients, employees and the state unemployment compensation system.

Mr. Tilley, formerly vice president of Penn Window Co., is "a person who has been blessed with many attributes that would've made you quite successful if you'd focused on doing things in a proper manner," said Judge Conti. "You have a drive within you to succeed, but you've trampled over a lot of people whose lives are devastated."

Those people include his girlfriend and several ex-associates, who were convinced by him to collect unemployment while working, defrauding the state of $39,387 and as a result being indicted individually; Coraopolis-based Penn Window, from which he took $305,517; and the owners of a Cleveland office building who incurred losses of $123,000 when he arranged to have a bid rigged in favor of one of his companies.

Mr. Tilley told the judge that as a young man he was a Marine, who took a bad conduct discharge and got off to a rough start on civilian life with a job as a bouncer at a bar. "I was a drunken ex-Marine, and I sold coke," he said. He did time for cocaine, got out, and spent 15 years working hard, primarily for Penn Window. He worked so hard, he lost two wives, and drifted into and out of drug abuse. "Cocaine kept me awake, and I could work late hours," he said. "I [had] 80 employees, I've got four offices, 14 trucks," and logistical headaches, he said.

Then he met the love of his life, Claudelle McMahill. He was good to her, but roped her into his schemes, too, convincing her, and others, to cheat the unemployment system. Concocting that scheme, he said, "had to be the dumbest moment of my life." Ms. McMahill was sentenced to 20 months in prison for her role in his crimes. "I took advantage of people in business," he continued, admitting to ripping off One Cleveland Center through bid-rigging. "What did I gain? ... I lived high on the hog for several years."

He said he has suffered enough, even missing his mother's death and losing Ms. McMahill, and should be allowed to "get out there and pay these [victims of his crimes] back" by working for a living. "I haven't seen an iota of remorse from Mr. Tilley, and I've been dealing with him for five years now," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan T. Conway. Mr. Tilley was first indicted in 2006, and has spent much of the time since pointing fingers at others. He also was caught with guns, which is illegal for a felon, and in 2008 was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison for that.

His nine-year sentence today, for 34 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, mail fraud and conspiracy, will run concurrently with the remainder of the gun sentence, meaning he can expect to get out by 2020. He must also join some of his co-conspirators in paying restitution, which totals around $507,000.

 Richland man sentenced to 9 years, 2 months in prison for fraud: A Richland man’s marathon attempt to prove he shouldn’t spend additional time in prison ended today when a federal judge sentenced him to nine years and two months in prison on three fraud cases. Lacey Tilley, 46, had argued in court documents that his sentence should run concurrent with — and end at the same time as — the sentence he’s already serving on a firearm charge. Tilley has been in Allegheny County since July 2007 after he was arrested in Florida for skipping bail on the fraud and firearm charges.

U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti agreed to make the fraud sentence run concurrent with the firearms sentence but the nine years and two months is more time then he has left to serve for his December 2007 jury conviction of being a felon in possession of firearm. In the first fraud case, a federal jury in November 2008 convicted Tilley of buying a company that provides janitorial services and telling his employees to file fraudulent unemployment claims. He then included those unemployment benefits as part of their salaries. The jury convicted him on one count of conspiracy and 31 counts of mail fraud.

In the other two fraud cases, Tilley pleaded guilty in 2009 to one count of mail fraud for embezzling more than $300,000 from his former employer, Penn Window Cleaning Company, and one count of wire fraud connected to submitting false loan documents to obtain a mortgage. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Conway said the year and nine months spent on hearings and motions between Tilley’s guilty plea and sentencing may be a record for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Conway confirmed the judge’s order means that the time Tilley already has served won’t be credited to his fraud sentence. Conti also sentenced Tilley to three years of probation.