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Background: Joseph Chastain (KATU). Inset: The hatchet used in the attack (Portland Police Bureau).
An Oregon man who attacked a man with a hatchet outside the victim’s home after a road rage incident has learned his fate.
Joseph K. Chastain, 33, will spend 42 months — or three and a half years in prison — for the 2023 attack that wounded Matt Griffin. Chastain learned his fate on Friday after pleading guilty to charges of attempted assault in the first degree.
“Mr. Chastain was intent on assaulting me, and after a violent attempt on my life, he succeeded,” Griffin told Multnomah County Circuit Judge Kelly Skye, The Oregonian reported.
The road rage incident happened on Aug. 12, 2023, just before 11 p.m. when Chastain cut Griffin off on a road, and Griffin honked at him.
Then, Chastain chased after him.
At Griffin’s home, Chastain jumped out of his vehicle with something dark in his hand. Griffin said he thought it was a gun and that he was about to be murdered, local CBS affiliate KOIN reported. Griffin grabbed a hatchet, but Chastain took it and attacked him with it before driving off. Griffin suffered two broken bones and a 6-inch gash on his leg that police put in a tourniquet to control the bleeding.
Police arrested Chastain months later at his home, where they found the hatchet.
At trial, Chastain’s attorney claimed the victim’s wound was self-inflicted, saying a biomechanics expert and radiologist determined it was consistent with a “swing and a miss” injury.
Griffin called out that claim in court.
“Not only is Mr. Chastain a rage-filled manic, he’s also a disgusting liar,” Griffin said, The Oregonian reported.
Prosecutors said there was no doubt about what happened that night, the newspaper reported.