JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A verdict was returned Wednesday in the trial of the Wing Depot owners accused of beating a Navy veteran outside an Arlington American Legion Post last May.
William Lodge, 60, was found guilty of aggravated assault of a senior citizen. The second-degree felony carries a minimum mandatory three-year prison sentence.
His wife, Terry Lodge, 55, was found not guilty in the assault.
The "vicious" attack left the victim, 66-year-old Charles Hughes, permanently disfigured, his attorney Randy Reep said.
"He fractured his skull, fractured his eye in two place, broke his nose and knocked his teeth out," Reep said.
Video from inside the American Legion Post recorded the moments before police say Hughes was beaten in the parking lot.
Hughes and others can be seen throwing coasters at the bartender near where the Lodges were sitting.
Hughes gets up to leave after a brief shouting match and William Lodge follows him out the front door.
The surveillance camera outside doesn't show the area of the parking lot where police say the beating occurred.
Reep said the judge could sentence William Lodge to six years.
"The aggravated assault can carry a prison sentences, but once you commit an aggravated battery to the extent that you cause permanent disfigurement which my client suffered, you now enhance that penalty to a mandatory minimum of three years in the Florida State Prison," Reep said.