DAYTON — A man has learned his sentence after pleading guilty in connection with a brutal attack that left a local security guard blind.
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James Fickling, 28, was sentenced on Friday to 26-31.5 years in prison.
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As previously reported, Fickling pleaded guilty to kidnapping, assault, inducing panic, and obstructing official business last month, just days before he was set to go to trial for the attack on Gloria Courtney.
Courtney was a guard for Merchant’s Security when Fickling attacked her in the former Premier Health building in downtown Dayton in October 2023.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen that day, and I hate that it did,” Courtney told the court on Friday.
Police and prosecutors said the attack began when Fickling pulled a fire alarm.
As Courtney responded to the alarm to usher people out of the building, Fickling jumped her and knocked her to the ground.
Courtney lost consciousness and remembers very little of the attack that left her blind.
On Friday, she said she doesn’t want to carry bitterness.
“I truly forgive you from my heart, not just in my mouth, and I have forgave you from the second day of me being in the hospital,” she said.
As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, Courtney’s statement put a hush over the courtroom.
Courtney’s daughters also addressed the court, with one reading a letter from Courtney’s sister and the other breaking down while reflecting on her mom’s ordeal.
“I can’t sit here and express how this truly has affected me, but I won’t allow anger to win,” Chiquita Miliner, Courtney’s daughter, said.
Judge Gerald Parker, who had to view unreleased surveillance video of the attack to prepare for sentencing, described it as “something out of a horror movie.”
The family and prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence, but Courtney still had more to say to Fickling.
“I probably shed more tears now than I’ve shed in three years,” Courtney emotionally said. “But to God be the glory, you are forgiven. And I pray that whatever your time spent behind bars, wherever they send you, I pray you draw strength from God as well.”
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