Officer's attacker sentenced to life

SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - The man who brutally attacked a Suffolk Police Officer during a traffic stop in May will spend the rest of his life in prison.

WAVY.com was in the courtroom as Joseph Staton, 43, of Portsmouth was sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years for attacking Officer James Winslow on May 19. Winslow attempted to pull Staton over and then chased Staton into a wooded area, where he was brutally beaten with a blunt object.

Winslow continues to recover from his injuries.

Staton pleaded guilty to the following charges in October:

• Aggravated malicious wounding
• Malicious assault of a law enforcement officer
• Forging an official document
• Uttering a forged document
• Attempt to disarm a law enforcement officer
• Grand larceny from a person
• Shoot, stab, cut or wound a person in the commission of a felony
• Grand larceny of a motor vehicle
• Statutory burglary
• Petit larceny, third offense

"I think the most astonishing thing through it all was the testimony of him protecting his gun. That he ejected the clip. That just showed what training can do... what presence of mind and what you can do," said the officer's cousin, Chris Jones.