‘Shattered’: Utah couple shares emotional, physical damage from 2022 assault, arson

FARMINGTON, Utah (KSL.com) — Walking to the podium in 2nd District Court on Wednesday, Clarence Newman, 74, carried the same oxygen tank his attacker told him last July would make it even easier for him to be burned to death.

“I’m constantly overwhelmed with thoughts of the attacker and this incident. It took away so much from us,” Newman told the courtroom. “I also lost my perspective of thinking that people are good. It has slowly impeded my sense of safety and security.”

Second District Court Judge Jennifer Valencia delivered the maximum potential sentence to Ammon Jacob Woodhead, 38, of Salt Lake, for attempting to kill Newman and his wife, Bethany Schmucker, and burning down their house last July. She cited the damage inflicted on the couple (who were strangers to Woodhead) and the home, Woodhead’s criminal history including more than 20 offenses, his continued drug usage and his high risk level to the community.

“It’s just entirely inadequate for the level of damage you’ve inflicted on these people,” Valencia said during the sentencing. “There is really no reason this event should have happened. … They did absolutely nothing to deserve what happened to them.”

Appearing erratic in the courtroom, Woodhead said, “I just want to apologize to everybody … It should never have happened. It was a random event, you know. I never planned it.”

He added the absurd statement that he was just looking for socks and didn’t know why he did what he did.

“I knocked on the door first. I went into the garage, I was looking for a pair of socks. That’s all I was looking for, was one pair of socks for the shoes that had no socks, and I ended up burning down the house,” Woodhead said in court. “I’m in shock and I don’t know what else to say but to apologize to everybody that’s involved. I don’t understand why I would do something that horrendous.”

Woodhead will serve three terms of six years to life in prison for aggravated arson and two counts of attempted aggravated murder, all first-degree felonies. He will also serve up to five years for disarming a police officer with an energy device, a third-degree felony, and 364 days for assault on a peace officer, a class A misdemeanor. All sentences are to be served consecutively.

Woodhead is also being granted credit for time served so far, 380 days in the Utah State Prison. He will also pay $79,163.53 to Newman and Schmucker, with more restitution fees going to neighbors whose houses were affected by the fire, and to the Utah Office for Victims of Crime.

“I’m going to die in prison,” Woodhead mumbled as he was escorted from the courtroom Wednesday. “(Expletive) you all.”

After the hearing, Newman commented that Woodhead deserved an even worse sentence. Schmucker expressed her concern that he never gets out of prison: “The fact that it’s the second time when he’s hurt older people — we just want to make sure nobody ever has to be a victim again of this violence,” she said.

On July 21, 2022, Woodhead entered the Centerville couple’s home through an open garage door while carrying a can of gasoline. Schmucker, then 68, was in her office. Woodhead told her he’d burn her. She kicked him out of the house, and he came back in while she was on the phone with 911, prosecuting attorney Teral Tree said.

Woodhead punched Schmucker in the teeth, breaking them, Schmucker said in court. He also punched her in the face, knocking her against a wall and causing a brain injury and an eye injury, she said. Woodhead poured gasoline on the carpet, tried to light it on fire, then went out to the deck and lit that on fire, Schmucker said.

Woodhead went into a bedroom where Newman was watching the U.S. Open and punched and kicked him, leaving bruises, Newman said. Seeing Newman’s oxygen tank, he told him, “Oh, good, you have oxygen, you’ll burn fast,” Tree said in court.

Newman said he tried to fight back, hitting Woodhead in the side of the head with his water mug.

Schmucker shielded her eyes in the courtroom as body cam footage was played showing officers responding to the incident and helping Schmucker get her father, then 87, out of the basement as the house burned. In the video, Woodhead tells officers, “I have a knife, and I’m going to kill you.” Woodhead fought the officers extensively and grunted at them, was tased multiple times and was finally taken into custody.

Schmucker and Newman were taken to a hospital, treated and released. The response to the house fire was delayed due to the struggle with Woodhead. The fire caused an estimated $1.2 million in damages, charges said.

‘I don’t know about our future’

“Never at my age of 74 did I ever imagine having to start over,” Newman testified in court. He talked about losing the home he built to raise his children in, along with residual health problems he suffers since the attack. These include balance and memory issues, residual pain in his back, shoulder and knees, worsened hearing issues, foot problems and difficulty focusing.

He said Schmucker has to go to therapy several times a week and is now easily startled.

“Her sense of safety and security are gone. They were shattered,” Newman said of his wife.

After pausing to collect herself on the stand, Schmucker described how she still has to go to speech and occupational therapy for her brain injuries, has headaches, has trouble sleeping and is anxious in public, including when she goes to the library or grocery store.

“I’m in a constant state of guarding, like 24/7 I’m awake, which takes its toll,” she said.

Schmucker was the family’s primary breadwinner but hasn’t been able to go back to her work as a certified public accountant since the attack, leading to a loss of financial security and forcing the couple to tap into their retirement savings.

“I don’t know about our future,” Schmucker said.

She also described the “dazed and confused state” her father has remained in since the attack. He is now living in a retirement facility where he has become introverted and lost much of his personality, Schmucker said.

“His safe daily routine was taken from him,” she said.

“We are slowly trying to recover from this, but because of what this individual did to us, our family will be changed forever, and it’s sad that one person has that much power to affect other people’s lives,” Newman testified. “My only recommendation would be to the court to make sure he doesn’t have a chance to do this to anyone ever again.”

‘This can and should have been prevented’

In exchange for Woodhead’s June 20 change-of-plea agreement related to the attack on Newman and Schmucker, seven charges were dismissed, including aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, all first-degree felonies; theft, a third-degree felony; burglary of a vehicle, a class A misdemeanor; assault on a peace officer, a class A misdemeanor; and interference with arresting officer, a class B misdemeanor.

He had previously pleaded not guilty to all 12 charges on November 22.

Prosecuting attorney Jeffrey Thomson explained that Woodhead is already serving time for a series of other charges, including a 2012 incident where he broke into a Murray home, brandishing a hatchet, and attacked two residents inside before trying to break into three other homes. He was sentenced to between one and 15 years for aggravated burglary, a second-degree felony, aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, and criminal mischief, a class A misdemeanor.

He will finish serving those sentences before consecutively serving his sentences relating to the Centerville incident, Thomson explained.

Woodhead also pleaded guilty to a felony count of weapon possession and a misdemeanor count of controlled substance possession in April 2016; was found guilty of misdemeanor unlawful detention and assault in August 2022; and has a history of drug- and theft-related charges in the Utah court system dating back to 2009.

Defense attorney Michael Bouwhuis pushed for concurrent, not consecutive sentences. He said Woodhead becomes violent under the influence of drugs but that he believed Woodhead could safely rejoin the community with treatment and prison time. But Valencia pointed out that the Board of Pardons and Parole has given Woodhead several chances to recover from his drug issues but that his crimes have only escalated.

Thomson said after the sentencing that Woodhead’s mother had told the board related to another case that he had relapsed and shouldn’t be released, but that he was let out on parole, anyway. Calling Woodhead’s actions “depraved and cruel,” he told the court during the sentencing that the Utah criminal justice system had “failed Utahns” and that “this can and should have been prevented.”