BY STACI WILSON

A Susquehanna man said he was under the influence of bath salts barely remembered the day he and his former girlfriend attacked an elderly man, dragging him from his pickup truck and leaving him beaten on the street.

Daniel Bentz, 31, offered an apology to the victim and his family prior to his sentencing hearing on Thursday in Susquehanna County Court.

Co-defendant Tracy Ramsay was responsible for beating the man while Bentz unbuckled his seatbelt from the passenger side and helped push him out of the parked truck on Oct. 13, 2011. The couple then stole the man’s truck.

Ramsay is currently serving a two and one-half to ten year prison term for robbery.

District Attorney Jason Legg read a letter, written by the victim’s son Edward Osterhout, to the court.

In the letter Osterhout said his father never had medical problems prior to the attack but since that day his health has deteriorated and he is now in hospice care.

“It is a battle my hero can not overcome,” Osterhout wrote.

He continued, “The man who went to go visit his sister that day is not the same man now, but they have not touched his compassion.”

In the letter, Osterhout said that after returning home from the hospital the day of the attack, his father sat on his front porch and said: “I’m glad it happened to me and not your mother or the young lady across the street.”

District Attorney Jason Legg said, “This case demonstrates the terrible conduct drugs, and abuse of drugs leads to.”

President Judge Kenneth Seamans sentenced Bentz to serve two to 10 years for the robbery to run concurrent to a six to 24 month sentence for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle on Aug. 27, 2011 in Great Bend Borough.

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