Anthony Nardini (Ventura County District Attorney’s Office)
A 42-year-old father in California faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars for trying to kill his son, using a sledgehammer to nearly beat the 24-year-old to death while the victim was asleep earlier this year.
A jury in Ventura County found Anthony Nardini guilty of three felony charges, including one count of attempted murder, over the March 2023 attack on his own child, authorities announced.
In addition to the attempted murder charge, Nardini was convicted on one count of aggravated mayhem and one count of assault with a deadly weapon. The jury’s verdict also included all felony special allegations levied against Nardini, which included the use of a deadly weapon and causing great bodily injury in the commission of a felony.
According to a press release from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, Nardini and his son had only recently reconnected at the time of the alleged attack after being estranged for an extended period of time. It was not immediately clear why the two were estranged or what brought them to reconnect.
Prosecutors said that Nardini and his son on March 19, 2023, were both staying with other family members in an unincorporated part of the county near Simi Valley, about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles. At some point during the evening, the two got into an argument that became physical and required other family members present at the time to step in and break up the scuffle.
Following the initial dispute, Nardini left the residence and drove away in his truck, but returned again that same evening.
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When Nardini reentered the home, prosecutors said that his son was asleep on a couch. At that point, Nardini “insisted” that the other members of the family who were in the house all head to bed.
“Once he was alone with the victim, Nardini grabbed a sledgehammer he found on the property and began to bludgeon his sleeping son with it,” prosecutors wrote in the release. “Hearing the force of the blows, family members came rushing in to find the victim suffering from severe head injury.”
Nardini then fled out the backdoor on foot.
Deputies with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene and recovered “a blood covered sledgehammer” right outside of the residence. The victim was transported to a local hospital where doctors placed him in a medically induced coma for several days due to the severity of his condition. Fortunately, the victim “ultimately survived the attack by his own father.”
“While this conviction will never repair the emotional and physical scars inflicted by his father, we hope that this affirmation by the jury will bring some solace to the young man who experienced an unfathomable attack on his life,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Stu Gardner, of the Office’s Domestic Violence Unit, said in a statement.
Nardini is currently scheduled to appear in court again on Nov. 1 for his sentencing hearing where he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison with the possibility for parole. Until then, he remains in custody without bond.
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