A Hatfield Township man who claimed an archangel commanded him to attack a man with a slate hammer in September 2021 has pleaded guilty one felony count of aggravated assault with extreme indifference.
Anthony Varallo, 33, pleaded guilty last week as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors that saw attempted first-degree murder and possession of an instrument of crime charges dropped in exchange for his plea. Court records show sentencing was deferred so officials can conduct a pre-sentencing investigation.
Varallo, who faces 10 to 20 years in prison on the aggravated assault charge, remains in custody at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in lieu of $750,000 cash bail, where he has been held since his arrest in September 2021.
The investigation initially began with a pedestrian-struck dispatch at 1:32 a.m. on Sept. 17, 2021, along the 700 block of Bethlehem Pike in the Colmar section of Hatfield Township. Responding officers located a 30-year-old victim in a grassy area of the southbound lanes of Bethlehem Pike, bleeding heavily from a head wound. Police said the victim was yelling for help but was otherwise incoherent and unable to answer any questions.
The criminal complaint notes that the victim was missing his right shoe, which was located in the parking lot of the Midas store across the street. Additionally, police said there was no evidence in the roadway indicating that the victim had been struck by a vehicle, which shifted their investigation towards a potential aggravated assault and away from a pedestrian being struck.
The victim was transported from the scene in critical condition to Grand View Hospital, where he underwent emergency neurosurgery. Medical staff reported to investigators that the head injury was consistent with a penetrating injury — though not a gunshot wound — adding that the injury was “tunnel-shaped,” which indicated that whatever caused the injury entered and exited the victim’s head from the same path.
Investigators learned that the victim was a resident of the nearby Hatfield Motel, who was known to wander the complex and exercise outside late at night. In reviewing the surveillance footage from the motel, investigators saw a white, shirtless male subject holding what appeared to be a slate hammer in the parking lot at 1:12 a.m. – 20 minutes before police were dispatched to the pedestrian struck incident on the same block, according to the complaint.
The male subject was captured on surveillance swinging the hammer around while walking through the complex and parking lot, the report states. Investigators added that surveillance showed the victim in the parking lot around the same time, before the victim began jogging towards Bethlehem Pike and out of camera view, the report states.
The male subject was later identified as Varallo, who was staying in a room at the Hatfield Motel at the time of the incident, police said. The report states that Varallo was voluntarily interviewed at the Hatfield Township Police Station several hours after the incident, at which point he confessed to attacking the victim from behind with the slate hammer in an attempt to kill him. Varallo told investigators that “the Archangel Gabriel” had instructed him to “kill Magog,” according to the complaint.
Police later retrieved the slate hammer from a backpack located in Varallo’s room, the report states.
See also:
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