79-year-old man accused of assaulting wife with hammer, knife

A 79-year-old man tried to kill his wife by hitting her in the head with a hammer and trying to stab her with a knife last week at their North Indian Trail home in Spokane, according to court documents.

The woman reported she and her husband, Richard G. Anthony, were sitting in their recliners Friday afternoon when her husband got up and went into the garage of their home at 10006 N. Glenwood Drive, court records say. He came back into the living room and told her to turn around as she sat in her recliner, she said.

She turned to her left and saw her husband holding a knife. She said he tried to stab her with the knife and she grabbed it with her hand. She said she bit his hand to get him to let go of the weapon.

She told police Anthony then hit her in the head with a hammer three times. She sustained a cut on her forehead above her right eyebrow and cuts on her right palm from the knife, according to court documents. She was taken to Providence Holy Family Hospital in north Spokane.

Police found blood on the floor in several areas of the home, a yellow and black hammer on the living room floor and a large kitchen knife on the fireplace bricks in the living room.

Anthony told police, “I tried to kill my wife” and “I wanted to kill her, that’s all.” He also said his plan was “to hit her in the head and stab her with a knife in the eye,” court records say.

Anthony described the knife as a fixed-blade, nonserrated kitchen knife that was 6 to 7 inches long. The hammer was 16 ounces, he told police.

Police arrested and booked Anthony into the Spokane County Jail on suspicion of first-degree attempted murder. Prosecutors instead charged Anthony with first-degree assault.

Anthony made his first appearance Tuesday in Spokane County Superior Court and is scheduled for an arraignment Thursday. He remained in jail Wednesday on a $300,000 bond.