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Attacker doesn�t get off easy twice A White City man who got only a year in jail for a vicious attack on his girlfriend and her estranged husband with a hatchet-like weapon was not so fortunate in federal court. A federal judge sentenced 52-year-old Jess "Butch" Martin Thursday to 87 months in prison on a 1998 firearms charge that predated the attack. Police said the July 27 attack occurred a few hours after Martin confronted Nancy Bennett and David Lindgren at the White City home he shared with Bennett. Lindgren suffered multiple injuries, including a fractured skull, while Bennett needed dozens of stitches to close a deep cut to her chin. Citing difficulties getting the victims to cooperate, Jackson County prosecutors were forced to reduce the case from a felony, which carried a mandatory sentence of 7� years in prison, to a misdemeanor. Lindgren, a carnival worker, has not been heard from since his release from jail in Klamath County on an unrelated parole beef. Because Martin has a long rap sheet that includes convictions in California for rape and armed robbery, federal authorities agreed to prosecute him as an armed career criminal on an unrelated weapons charge. That charge stemmed from Martin�s arrest in October 1998 for being an ex-con in possession of a firearm. Court records described the weapon as a .308-caliber Remington bolt-action rifle. The weapon in the White City attack was never found. It was initially described as a hatchet, but police later said it was probably a sharpened pipe of some kind. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA