Plea reached with attacker of knife victim found in hospital parking lot

McCOOK, Neb. — A plea agreement was reached recently in Red Willow County District Court with a McCook man arrested in connection with a stabbing victim found by security personnel lying on the concrete in the Community Hospital parking lot. The attacker, 25-year-old Jacob Cash of 1604 West 4th Street and 804 East 6th Street, was subsequently scheduled for sentencing on four felony offenses stemming from the crime at 9:45 a.m. on July 31, 2017.

The plea agreement reduced a Class 2 felony alleging first degree assault, serious bodily injury, to a Class 2A felony for second degree assault which indicated Cash caused bodily injury with a dangerous instrument to victim Keith Brooks. Cash will also face sentencing on a Class 3 felony for being a convicted felon in possession of a deadly weapon, the knife used in the stabbing; a Class IV felony for tampering with physical evidence; and a Class IV felony for possession of methamphetamine.

The plea agreement dismissed a Class 2 felony alleging Cash used a deadly weapon to commit a felony; a second Class 3 felony alleging Cash was a prohibited person in possession of a deadly weapon; and an infraction alleging possession of drug paraphernalia.

According to court documents, at approximately 2:23 a.m. on April 20 a man in a gray Ford Ranger pickup pulled into the Community Hospital parking lot and approached a security guard asking for help for his friend. The security guard left to retrieve a wheelchair and when he returned the man and his pickup were gone and another man was lying on the concrete bleeding severely, later identified as stabbing victim Keith Brooks.

The emergency room physician reported Brooks had a puncture wound to his upper left arm that went through and into his chest.

Brooks was later in the process of being life-flighted to Denver, due to the severity of his injuries, when the plane had to turn around and come back to the McCook airport because he quit breathing shortly after takeoff. According to court documents, Brooks was given an airway intervention by a general surgeon from Community Hospital at the airport before proceeding.

Cash was already on probation at the time of the Brooks assault and will also face sentencing later this month on probation violations which stem from the arrest, in addition to being unemployed and testing positive for meth and marijuana use several times.

Cash was sentenced to 36 months probation in Red Willow County District Court in October of 2016 stemming from convictions on a pair of Class IV felonies for possession of a controlled substance and failing to affix an illegal drug tax stamp. He tested positive for marijuana use two days into the probation sentence; meth use in early February, prior to reaching the four month mark; and both marijuana and meth use on March 21, 2017, less than a month prior to the Brooks stabbing. Cash also failed to report for chemical testing in February, March and again in early April, according to court documents.

Investigators later identified the man in the gray pickup as James Bonacci of McCook. Bonacci was arrested along with four others in mid-June during an unrelated McCook Police Department raid of a suspected meth lab on West 15th Street. He is facing a Class 2A felony alleging he manufactured meth in addition to a Class IV felony alleging possession of meth, stemming from the raid.