Man sentenced for spike attack

A 38-year-old Carlton man was sentenced this week to eight years, eight months in prison for a violent attack earlier this year.

Jacob Robert Clarin had pleaded guilty in August to felony first-degree assault — great bodily harm, for attacking another resident on Feb. 21 at the Lake Venoah Board and Lodge outside Carlton, in Twin Lakes Township.

Judge Rebekka Stumme accepted the guilty plea, and an amended charge — first-degree assault down from attempted murder. In return for the guilty plea, a charge of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon was dismissed. Clarin faced more than 17 years in prison if he’d gone to trial and been convicted.

At the time of the attack in February, authorities found a victim who’d been struck several times with a makeshift instrument, which Clarin described in court as “my ice pick” — a railroad spike taped to a broom handle.

The bloody attack left the male victim with gashes about the head, including one blow above an eyebrow that required 40 stitches.

According to the criminal complaint, the victim reported to deputies he had gone to the bathroom and when returning to his room, heard another door open and was then hit in the back of the head with an object. He was struck several times before retreating to his room and locking the door. The victim reported he had only been at the facility for two days and said Clarinhad yelled at him on his first day. During the attack, the victim said Clarin yelled: “You’re the guy, I know it’s you.”

Clarin’s mother submitted a letter to the court on his behalf prior to sentencing, stating that he suffered a brain injury due to a car crash in 2005. According to the letter, the crash caused a frontal lobe injury that left him a vulnerable adult and affects his decision-making.

“He has been in and out of group homes, hospitals and jails. It breaks my heart,” she wrote, describing her son as a hard worker and a person with a strong relationship with God. “Those of us that know and love Jacob know his gentle loving broken spirit.”

Clarin expressed regret at the plea hearing in August.

“I do feel remorseful and would take it all back if I could,” he said.

Clarin has a previous misdemeanor assault conviction, as well as convictions for driving under the influence, petty theft, and obstructing legal process.

He’d been at Lake Venoah for three years, he told the judge, fishing every day and enjoying the seclusion of life in the woods, near a lake.

Lake Venoah Board and Lodge describes itself on social media as “offering supportive services for adult men with alcohol and drug addictions.”

Clarin will serve his sentence at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud. The sentence consists of a minimum term of imprisonment equal to two-thirds of the sentence, or just over five and a half years. He will be credited for 229 days already served.