Oak Harbor man sentenced to jail in knife incident

A man who menaced his wife with a knife May 18 at Navy housing in Oak Harbor was recently sentenced to jail.

Tyler A. McLellan, 33, pleaded guilty Monday in Island County Superior Court to assault in the third degree, a domestic violence crime.

The judge sentenced McLellan to 15 days in jail and 15 days of electronic home monitoring. Court documents indicated he had been diagnosed with PTSD.

The police report states that McLellan came home just before midnight intoxicated and injured from a fight.

The two men who had been with him knocked on the door, upset with McLellan about his behavior at a bar.

After the woman got the men to leave, McLellan twice grabbed her around the neck and pushed her against the wall, the report states. He did not grab her hard enough to cause her to be unable to breath, the report indicates.

McLellan then grabbed a knife from the kitchen. The woman said he screamed at her to “shut up” each time she asked him not to hurt her and would “posture towards her, as if he was going to lash out with the knife and stab her,” the report states.

McLellan fell down, and the woman grabbed the knife. She opened the door to find Navy security had arrived.

The woman said McLellan had never been violent before, but she had found messages he sent to a friend saying he was going to shoot “her” and then himself, the police report states.

The police report described McLellan as being intoxicated. He told officers at the jail that they were disrespecting a war hero; he claimed he had three confirmed kills but later said it was nine, the officer wrote.

A judge set McLellan’s bail at $100,000.

Several character letters submitted to the court indicate on McLellan’s behalf state that he had sought help prior to the assault and was diagnosed with PTSD; he went through harrowing deployments in South America and the Middle East.

One of the letters pointed out that McLellan had been struck on the head and knocked out prior to the assault.

McLellan’s friends and family members described McLellan as a good man, great father and a valued member of the Navy; they wrote that he took responsibility for his actions.

Court documents indicate that McLellan was discharged from the Navy, six years short of retirement.

Under the terms of the plea bargain, the prosecutor recommended a one-month sentence, which was the minimum under standard sentencing range. The judge converted half of the sentence to electronic home monitoring.