A MAN has been jailed for 10 years after he spat in a man’s face and claimed he had infected the victim with Covid-19 during a store spat over masks.
The spat broke out at a Vision 4 Less store in Des Moines, Iowa, on November 11, when Mark Dinning allegedly asked Shane Wayne Michael, 42, to secure his mask over his nose.
Michael allegedly told “if I have it, you have it” during the brutal attack, implying he had infected him with coronavirus, reports say.
Michael alleged that Dinning “shoulder-checked” him and “poked him in the stomach” once the two men had left the store, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports.
A fight broke out and the two men grappled on the floor.
Michael said he had Dinning pinned to the floor when Dinning bit his arm and he countered by poking Dinning in the left eye.
Witness Bob Darr, a store employee, claimed Michael initiated the confrontation.
Darr reportedly told police there that Dinning followed Michael out of the store before attacking him and spitting in his face, per the Dispatch.
Cops arrested Michael and charged him with assault causing bodily injury.
Michael was eventually offered a plea deal in February by Polk County prosecutors, which allowed him to enter a plea of wilful injury causing bodily harm.
This lesser charge would have gotten him just two years of probation, according to the Capital Dispatch.
But Michael rejected the deal and decided on a jury trial with the charges being changed to the more serious offence of wilful injury causing serious injury.
Michael was found guilty on April 1 this year and sentenced to 10 years behind bars on Wednesday, according to Polk County court records.
A fine of $1,370 was waived by the court temporarily in light of his impending incarceration.
Michael’s family spoke out after the sentencing, saying they thought it inordinately harsh.
Dad Dennis Michael told the Capital Dispatch: “It’s like [Dinning] got a black eye in a bar fight, and now my son is getting 10 years in prison.”
Michael’s wife Becky said: “He’s my rock, he’s my protector. I don’t know what I’m going to do without him. I’m lost without him.”
Dennis Michael told the Dispatch his son rejected the plea deal because he was acting in self-defense.
His father insisted Michael was not guilty of any crime, before explaining: “He’s not going to cover his nose and mouth because he can’t breathe” due. to asthma.
“And there was no mask mandate in place. It was just a request by Vision 4 Less that people wear a mask, and he was.”
