Man gets 16 years in bait shop slashing

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — An Erie man has been ordered to spend as much as 16 years behind bars for the near-fatal slashing of a bait shop employee last year.

Sixty-five-year-old Thomas Schertzer apologized during his court appearance Tuesday but offered no explanation for why he grabbed a knife from a rack and slashed the throat of 59-year-old David Gauriloff Jr. inside a Millcreek Township bail shop.

The attack left Gauriloff badly injured and with a titanium plate in his larynx.

Gauriloff told Erie County Judge Michael Dunlavey that after the attack he asked Schertzer why he cut him, the man replied, “I wanted to see how sharp the knife was” then walked out.

Schertzer pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in March. The judge ordered him to undergo a psychological evaluation in prison.