CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The trial involving a man accused of stabbing and robbing a person inside a McDonald’s bathroom will take place in March.
During a Wednesday morning status hearing in Kanawha County Circuit Court, Judge Kenneth Ballard set the trial for Richard Thornton, 32, for March 11. His pretrial hearing is scheduled for Feb. 28 at 10:30 a.m.
Thornton was working at the McDonald’s at the Crossings Mall in Elkview in Jan. 2023 when Kanawha County deputies said he followed a customer into the bathroom of the restaurant, stabbed him and then robbed him of his wallet.
Deputies arrested Thornton at a nearby gas station shortly after the incident. Thornton was carrying the victim’s wallet and a bloody knife with him at the time of his arrest.
Thornton has undergone a mental evaluation in recent months after the judge deemed him a “danger to the public.”
Thornton pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree robbery with a deadly weapon last April. He was already serving a one-year probation for an incident in September 2019 of attempted malicious wounding of emergency service personnel.
The victim, a 56-year-old man, had just placed an order inside the McDonald’s before Thornton followed him into the restroom. The man’s injuries were not serious.
Kanawha County Chief Deputy Joe Crawford previously said Thornton was just looking to steal.
“We don’t believe this was targeted”, Crawford said in April 2023. “We believe this was a crime of opportunity more than anything else.”
Thornton remains in the South Central Regional Jail on a $100,000 cash only bond.