TRAVERSE CITY — A case involving an alleged road rage ax attack in the parking lot of the Traverse Area District Library will proceed to circuit court.
Police said Peter Bormuth, 70, of Traverse City, hit a 74-year-old man with an ax in a road rage incident at about 2 p.m. April 14.
On Friday, Grand Traverse County District Judge Robert Cooney found probable cause to proceed with a trial after hearing testimony and reviewing video footage of the incident.
Bormuth pleaded not guilty to the charge of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and the case was bound over to 13th Circuit Court.
He said he would offer his own defense and represented himself in district court Friday with attorney Stephen Kane serving as standby counsel.
Cooney set a $25,000 personal recognizance bond, including conditions that he have no contact with the victim and exhibit no threatening manner. Conviction on the charge could result in a maximum 10-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $5,000.
After hearing testimony and seeing evidence from the prosecutor, the judge said he had “no doubt” that an assault had occurred and that there had been intent to do great bodily harm.
“You can’t swing an ax at someone without anticipating that that’s likely to cause great bodily harm,” Cooney said.
Video footage showed the incident that occurred in the library’s Woodmere branch parking lot. Bormuth did not argue that it was not him in the video.
According to the case presented in court, the defendant and the victim had both been driving to the library that day when there was some dispute involving horn honking and shouting at the intersection of Hannah Avenue and Woodmere Avenue, although details about the altercation were debated.
The video showed the cars entering the parking lot, with Bormuth parking his car first and the victim stopping his car behind Bormuth’s and getting out. The victim was seen walking to the end of his car, where he stopped and waited. He did not walk around the vehicle to the side that Bormuth was on.
Footage showed Bormuth exit his car with an ax and then he “quickly races up to (the victim),” as Cooney described it, and immediately began swinging the ax, with at least one of the blows connecting with the victim.
The victim testified that the strike broke the bone in his upper left arm, requiring surgery the next day where two metal plates and eight screws were used to stabilize the bone. He required an additional three days at the hospital for intravenous antibiotics due to the nature of the injuries, he said.
“The word that keeps coming to my mind in reviewing the video and hearing the testimony is ‘astonishing’,” Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Attwood said.
Attwood said the video showed there was no effort made to avoid the encounter and there was no argument or discussion prior to the attack.
Bormuth, who said he pleaded not guilty “by reason of self-defense and distress,” called Traverse City “violent,” citing the Walmart stabbings last year and the shooting death of Lawrence Boyd in a downtown parking deck last November.
He had a “reasonable belief” that his life was in danger, Bormuth said.
Cooney noted that there was “nothing particularly aggressive” about the movements or posture of the victim in the video. Although no evidence that was shared at Friday’s hearing could apply to a case of self-defense, the judge said, a claim of self-defense could be pursued at trial.
Bormuth is scheduled for a pretrial conference at 8 a.m. June 18 in 13th Circuit Court.