Man attacked with hammer

SANDPOINT — A Bonner County man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly attacking a man with a bladed framing hammer at a Ponderay construction site.

Kevin Wayne Mooneyham is charged with aggravated battery, a felony. Judge Barbara Buchanan set Mooneyham's bail at $250,000 and signed an order forbidding him from contacting the victim in the case.

Ponderay Police and sheriff's deputies were summoned to the Starr Lane work site at about 4:30 p.m., after dispatchers received a report of a man brandishing an ax.

Prosecutor Phil Robinson said Mooneyham apparently went to the site to confront the victim about missing tools and money he was allegedly owed.

Mooneyham struck the victim three times with both ends of the hand tool, Robinson said. The device has a standard hammer head, plus a bladed portion with a notch. Robinson said the victim was struck with the blunt end in the mouth and hit behind his ear with the bladed end.

Robinson sought a quarter million dollars bail partly because Mooneyham had allegedly threatened to kill the victim.