This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
For the second time in two months, a Utahn was burned by the chemical lye — but this time it was sprayed in a man's face in an attack that left the man blind in one eye, police said.
In charges filed Monday, police in Tooele wrote that a man early on Sept. 7 reported that someone knocked on his door and, when he answered, the knocker punched him in the eye and sprayed a substance at his face, which was causing his skin to peel off. When police arrived, the man's face, neck and upper chest were red, his left eye was "white," police wrote, and some of his hair was falling out.
The man was flown to University Hospital, where doctors treated burns on his face, scalp and neck; they said the victim may never regain vision in his left eye, where he was punched.
Meanwhile, officers returned to the victim's house to find the substance on the door was eating through the paint on the door and the brass finish on the doorknob.
Later that day, someone told officers that the assailant was Richard Gilmore, 42, and that the substance sprayed on the victim was lye, according to the charges. The source directed police to Middle Canyon, where they found the lye container and a pair of gloves. The victim also identified Gilmore from a photo lineup.
About two weeks later, the principal of Gilmore's children's elementary school told police he noticed Gilmore was driving a new car. When the principal asked about it, Gilmore said his old truck had been stolen but he "had taken care of it," police wrote.
"I got a lot of people pissed off at me, but he got what he deserved," Gilmore allegedly told the principal, adding that he hated to beat up the guy, police wrote.
When Gilmore was arrested Thursday, he said he sprayed the victim with lye because the victim had stolen his wife's vehicle and damaged it, police wrote. He allegedly said the victim "got what he deserved for disrespecting him and his wife's property."
Gilmore was charged with mayhem and aggravated assault result resulting in serious bodily injury, both second-degree felonies.
It is the second recent injury from exposure to lye in Utah. On Aug. 10, 67-year-old Jan Harding suffered critical burns to her mouth and esophagus when she drank sweet tea at a South Jordan restaurant where employees mistook an industrial cleanser containing lye for sugar and mixed it with the tea. Lye is the active ingredient in drain cleaner. Harding could not speak for six days and spent more than two weeks in the hospital.