Lindsey Sherman Tibbs III, right, looks around the courtroom during a sentencing hearing Monday in Wood County Circuit Court as Assistant Public Defender Shane McCullough listens. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — Lindsey Sherman Tibbs III was sentenced to five to 25 years in prison on attempted murder and malicious assault charges Monday, moments after two people shared the impact of his brutal attack on them.

Parkersburg resident Venus Buskirk said she was letting Tibbs, who was homeless at the time, eat, take a shower and rest at her house in September because she considered him “a good friend.”

“That’s what friends do,” Buskirk said through tears in Wood County Circuit Court. “They help each other. They don’t beat each other half to death. You don’t do that, Tibbs!”

Assistant Wood County Prosecutor Blaire Hudson said Tibbs beat and kicked Buskirk and her friend, Robert Bonnett, accusing them of stealing from him, something he later admitted hadn’t happened. Judge Jason Wharton said Tibbs struck Bonnett squarely in the back of the head with an ax, which could have been a fatal wound.

“Mr. Tibbs, you could be looking at life in prison,” the judge said, shortly after pronouncing a sentence of two to 10 years, with credit for 285 days served, on a charge of malicious assault and three to 15 years for attempted murder.

Wharton ordered the sentences to be served consecutively rather than concurrently, as public defender Shane McCullough had requested.

Tibbs entered an Alford plea — in which a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges there is likely enough evidence to convict — to the charges in April. Speaking to the court Monday, he said he’d recently been diagnosed with a “rage disorder” to which he attributed the September attack and previous crimes.

“I take full responsibility for this,” Tibbs said. “It seems obvious that I should have been on medication for quite some time.”

Wharton said that while he hoped medication would help Tibbs, he had to look at his actions in the crime and past behavior, including two felony convictions for unlawful assault in 2007 and 2012, in determining the sentence.

Bonnett told Tibbs the attack changed his life forever.

“I can’t work now,” he said. “I begged you for my life.

“I hope you get the help you need,” Bonnett said. “You’re going to live an easier life than I’m going to live the rest of my life.”

Tibbs remained calm during the hearing and mouthed “I’m sorry” to both Buskirk and Bonnett before Wharton announced the sentence. Afterward, he looked to someone he knew in the back of the courtroom and whispered, “It’s OK.”

Hudson questioned whether Tibbs was actually taking responsibility for his actions as she asked Wharton not to allow him to serve the sentences concurrently.

“We believe that to do anything less would be to diminish the seriousness of this crime,” she said.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.