A cancer-stricken Spokane man died days after being jailed for attacking his wife. His family says the violence was a symptom

A 79-year-old man may have been in a state of paranoia or confusion from cancer treatment or his impending death when police say he attacked his wife with a knife and hammer last month in their Spokane home.

Richard G. Anthony was arrested immediately after the Feb. 27 alleged assault and split the next week between the Spokane County Jail and a hospice facility before his death, according to family members.

“We honestly think he could have died in the jail, and we were able to spend our last days with him in hospice, and it was very peaceful,” said Allison Anthony, one of Richard’s two daughters. “He was only conscious for the first day that he was in hospice, and then he was unconscious the rest of the time.”

She said her father and stepmother, Sheila Anthony, were married 22 years.

“He adored her,” Allison said. “He knew she was great, so it’s just very upsetting to think that people would think that he would intentionally harm her, because he never would or anyone else.”

Allison said hospice workers told the family Richard’s violence was an extreme case of “terminal agitation.”

Also called terminal restlessness or delirium, the condition causes a person to become increasingly restless and hostile leading up to their death, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Physical signs can include pulling on bedsheets or IV lines, tossing and turning, and fidgeting. Anxiety, combative behavior, confusion, hallucinations, irritability or paranoia are possible behavioral signs.

Allison said she was told people with terminal agitation often don’t have the strength to become as violent as what unfolded in the living room of Richard and his wife.

Sheila told police she and her husband were sitting in their recliners when her husband got up and went into the garage, according to court documents. He came back into the living room with a knife, which he tried to use to stab her. She said she grabbed it with her hand and bit his hand to get him to let go of the weapon.

She told police her husband then hit her in the head with a hammer. She sustained a cut on her forehead above her right eyebrow and cuts on her right palm from the knife, according to court documents.

Sheila said Sunday she was doing okay and was due to get her stitches above her eyebrow out the next day. She said she still had a black eye.

Richard told police after the attack that he “tried to kill my wife,” according to court records.

Police booked him into the Spokane County Jail, and he was ultimately charged with suspicion of first-degree assault.

Before he was booked into jail, Richard was taken to the hospital where doctors medically cleared him to go to jail, the family said. He remained in jail for four days on a $300,000 bond until a judge on March 3 allowed him to be released into a hospice facility.

He spent the next three days at Hospice of Spokane and died Friday.

Doctors recently told the family Richard would live six to nine more months, so his death was unexpected.

“We did not realize he was so ill,” Allison said.

The family was frustrated Richard was sent to jail in the first place, taking away precious time with their loved one.

Lisa Anthony, Richard’s other daughter, said police taking her father to jail never crossed her mind.

“I never thought they’d take him to jail,” Lisa said. “They knew he was dying and he was confused.”

When he was taken to jail, he had fluid and a blood clot in his lungs and his legs were swollen, Allison said.

“They were able to look into his medical records and see how sick he was, but they still decided to put him in the jail,” she said.

The family said they never got an explanation of why the hospital, which they said was Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, cleared him to go to jail.

County spokeswoman Martha Lou Wheatley-Billeter said if a defendant is taken to a hospital for care, it’s up to the doctors at the hospital to medically clear that person before they can be booked into jail.

“We are aware of this patient’s passing and extend our deepest condolences to the family during this difficult time,” Providence said in a statement. “While we cannot discuss the details of any individual patient’s care due to privacy laws, we can share that decisions regarding admission, treatment, and discharge are made by our licensed care teams. We discharge patients only when they are medically ready and have appropriate care after discharge.”

Lisa said she was grateful Hospice of Spokane took him after his jail stay.

“I thought that was really kind, and that’s where he should have been,” Lisa said.

She said she had a great conversation with her father, who was still showing signs of confusion, for about an hour on Tuesday, the last day he was conscious.

“He saw me and the first thing he said was, ‘Please live a long life,’ ” Lisa said. “I thought he probably had more time left. I didn’t think he would die by Friday.”

Sheila said her husband was diagnosed with kidney cancer about one year ago. He had surgery to remove one of his kidneys.

Doctors initially said he didn’t need further treatment, according to Allison, but scans recently showed the cancer had spread to his lungs.

Richard’s cancer treatment started in November with Opdivo infusions and Cabometyx, an oral drug, but his side effects were so bad that doctors took him off both medications in January, Sheila said.

Those side effects, like weakness, soreness, sleepless nights and brain fog, continued. He even needed help to get out of bed and dressed.

He was prescribed Prednisone, a steroid, to counteract the effects of the two drugs.

“Brain fog persisted throughout this whole thing,” Sheila said. “He was confused. He couldn’t make sense out of television news or anything he read.”

Since January, he’s been in and out of the hospital and urgent care for delirium, suicidal thoughts, a blood clot in his leg and coughing and breathing problems. His family said he wasn’t properly treated and was shuffled from one medical facility to the next.

Richard didn’t want any more cancer treatment, so the family started hospice preparations last month. His family said his physical and behavioral changes were a result of the cancer treatments.

“He was saying terrible, cruel things that he would never say in his right mind,” said Sheila, describing one rough morning.

Allison said her father never harmed a person in his life.

“His personality just completely changed,” she said.

Allison said her father lived in Spokane all his life. He was a contractor who built houses all over the city in the 1970s and ’80s, and then transitioned primarily into remodeling bathrooms.

He also served in the U.S. Army Reserve.

He was a great painter and loved science, nature walks and watching and identifying birds, according to family members.

“He had a really good eye for art,” Allison said.

Lisa, also a painter, said the last time she saw her father, he told her to continue to paint.

“I do painting, and he always really encouraged me to do my art, and I never really felt like anybody cared that much about it,” Lisa said. “But my dad, he wanted to see it all. He wanted to talk about it.”

Richard was also an excellent bass fisherman, fishing over 50 years on area lakes, Allison said.

Lisa said his favorite place to fish was the Pend Oreille River, which runs through North Idaho and northeastern Washington. She recalled a recent summer fishing expedition on the river where he showed her the best places to catch fish.

Sheila described her husband as quiet and self-deprecating. She and Allison also said he was reliable.

“He was the most reliable person I’d ever known,” Allison said. “You could always count on him.”

Lisa said her father enjoyed fixing up her old house she bought in Spokane.

“He just really cared about me a lot,” she said. “I always felt that.”