Man sentenced in Carlton County rail spike attack – Duluth News Tribune

CARLTON — A man was sentenced Monday to more than eight years in prison for seriously assaulting another residential school resident with an improvised weapon.

Jacob Robert Clarin, 38, admitted to using a club made of a railroad spike attached to a chair leg to beat the victim at the Lake Venoah Board and Lodge in Twin Lakes Township, just south of Carlton , February 21.

In August, Clarin pleaded guilty to first-degree assault, with the Carlton County Prosecutor’s Office agreeing to dismiss another count of attempted second-degree intentional murder.

Court documents say a staff member at the facility, which provides support services for men with substance use disorders, called 911 to report that Clarin had assaulted another resident and was gone.

Carlton County Sheriff’s deputies found the victim, Christopher Corwin Buchholz, 44, bleeding from wounds to his forehead, scalp and neck. He was taken to Community Memorial Hospital and required approximately 40 stitches.

Buchholz told deputies he went to the bathroom and was returning to his room when he heard another door open and was hit in the head with an object. He was punched several times before managing to return to his room, locking the door as the attacker attempted to break in.

A criminal complaint said the victim had only been at the facility for two days and that Clarin yelled at him the first day. Buchholz said he did not know the defendant, but Clarin seemed to believe he had “hurt him in the past.”

During the attack, Clarin allegedly shouted: “You’re the guy. I know it’s you.”

Police said they recovered three broken pieces of the gun at the scene. Held together by electrical tape, it included a section with two curved metal pieces pointing outward, along with the railroad spike attached to the top.

Meanwhile, officers began searching for Clarin, going to the adjacent lake, where he was known to fish. The complaint says a drone team was called in and eventually located him on the thin ice.

Clarin allegedly made several off-the-cuff comments about the attack, saying he “wanted to kill” Buchholz and implying he had harmed him in the past. In his bedroom, investigators also found broken objects and scribbles on the wall believed to refer to the attack.

Clarin has been civilly committed as mentally ill and/or chemically dependent four times in Minnesota since 2007. His mother explained in a recent letter to the court that he suffered a brain injury in a car accident in 2005, leaving him “struggle and be misunderstood all your life.

Clarin told the judge Monday that he did not consider himself a violent person, but that he “felt in danger” and “had to protect himself.”

“I’m really, really sorry and I really wish things had gone completely differently,” he said. “I can’t change anything, but if I could, I would never see that night again.”

Judge Rebekka Stumme noted, however, that Clarin already had a number of assault convictions on his record. She said she had no doubt that he was a vulnerable adult, but that his reaction when he felt cornered was “to act violently”.

“At your plea hearing, you acknowledged that there were other options than what you ultimately decided to do,” the judge said, “and that is what you will need to focus on when you will be released from prison for this event.”

Clarin must serve just under six years of the 104-month sentence before being eligible for supervised release.

Tom Olsen has covered crime, courts and the 8th Congressional District for the Duluth News Tribune since 2013. He graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth and is a lifelong resident of the city. Readers can contact Olsen at 218-723-5333 or [email protected].