Man Who Beat Pro-Lifers Gets No Prison

A man who brutally beat two elderly pro-life advocates escaped jail time on Thursday after a judge sentenced him to just one year of home detention and three years of probation.

The sentence for 28-year-old Patrick Brice was handed down by Baltimore City Circuit Judge Yvette M. Bryant. Brice was convicted earlier this year after he left 73-year-old Mark Crosby and 84-year-old Richard Schaefer bloodied outside of a Planned Parenthood on May 26, 2023.

After the trial, Crosby told The Daily Wire that he was not surprised by the outcome.

“Baltimore City is criminal-friendly. It’s not victim-friendly at all, especially if you’re a senior,” he said outside of the Elijah Cummings courthouse. “Judges do not like pro-lifers. They don’t like us saving babies, I don’t know why.”

He said the day he was beaten was “the most glorious” of his life and that he was happy to shed his own blood and suffer for Jesus.

After the attack, Crosby was treated for a fractured bone in his face, blindness in one eye, head and neck pain, two fractured fingers, and bruising on his arms and legs. Crosby says that the attack left him with photophobia, meaning he has to cover his right eye on sunny days and from very bright lights.

Crosby, a devout Catholic who was wearing a crucifix during the sentencing, brought photos of his bloodied face and the stained shirt he was wearing the day of the attack. The shirt was ripped from being cut off during shock trauma.

Brice was convicted in February on two counts of second-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment. He dodged a first-degree assault charge in both a jury trial and a later bench trial in May.

Bryant sentenced him to one year of home detention, which means he will be allowed to travel for work or medical purposes. He will get three years of probation after that and cannot go near an abortion facility or pro-life clinic as well.

State prosecutors requested a total of 10 years in prison, asking that the judge send a “strong message of deterrence” against attacking people in broad daylight over their political and religious views.

Schaefer and Crosby both gave victim statements during the sentencing.

Schaefer said that “no matter how this goes,” he would be back at Planned Parenthood. He also flatly denied that he had done anything to provoke Brice, as suggested by his lawyer.

Terrell Roberts, a lawyer, read Crosby’s victim impact statement.

In the statement, Crosby asked for a lengthy prison sentence due to the “brutality of the attack” and that he “kicked me in the face like a football player kicking a field goal.”

During the trial, Brice said that he was sorry for what he did and said that he “snapped” based on a comment he claimed Schaefer made to him that was racial in nature. He said, “I was having a bad day,” and that he was not an abortion activist.

“I really am sorry,” he said.

Brice’s lawyer claimed that the attack was not “politically motivated” and said that his client had lost jobs and a relationship because of the case.

“Justice was not served in this case,” Roberts told The Daily Wire. “Sentencing, I thought, would end up right where it was because they were going to give them all the slack in the world.”

Roberts said a failed application of the law by Bryant ended with Brice’s acquittal on first-degree assault.

Brice declined to make an official comment to reporters after the sentencing, but indicated he would be reaching out.

The attack was captured on surveillance video that shows Schaeffer and Brice engaging in a heated argument outside of the downtown Baltimore Planned Parenthood facility. The video then shows Brice tackling Schaeffer into a potted plant. Crosby, who was standing across the street, then runs over, and Brice pushes him to the ground. Brice then straddles Crosby and punches him in the face before standing up and kicking him in the head.

Schaefer and Crosby regularly go outside the downtown Baltimore Planned Parenthood facility to urge women not to get abortions. The attack did not deter their efforts, and they have both returned to the same Planned Parenthood in the months following the incident.

Crosby believes that Brice should have been charged with a hate crime because he says he yanked a crucifix he was wearing off his neck and threw it into the bushes. Brice denied having any animosity toward Christians.