A 35-year-old homeless man was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday for walloping a married couple with a metal baton on a downtown Portland beach because he thought their dog wandered too close to his tent.

Jonathan Rance pushed Kelly Corrado into some boulders in the Willamette River and struck her on the back and head, causing a bloody gash on her skull that required three staples. Rance also whacked Andrew Corrado on the shoulder last July 25 at Poet’s Beach, in the shadow of the west end of the Marquam Bridge.

“Mr. Rance showed no regard to human life, no remorse,” Andrew Corrado told Multnomah County Circuit Judge Kathleen Dailey. “We showed compassion to him when we first met him when we got down there about his plight, that he was living there. ... And three hours later, he beat the crap out of us.”

Rance pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon.

He didn't apologize or otherwise make any statements during the hearing.

He had been living along the beach in a tent with his wife, Alyssa Retes, and their two dogs, as well as a parrot and a rabbit. The Corrados had gone down to the park to enjoy some summer weather on a day off from their jobs as TriMet bus drivers.

Days before the attack, city officials held an official grand opening for the beach by announcing they'd hired lifeguards and set up buoys in an effort to encourage the public to use the narrow patch of sand. The city has since decided not to hire lifeguards for the beach this summer.

The Corrados are thankful for the lifeguards that were on duty the day of their attack because they called 911 after Rance threw the couple’s cellphone into the river. Rance also said he was going to follow them home, according to the Corrados.

The Corrados a few hours earlier had a friendly conversation with Rance and his wife, according to a probable cause affidavit. They told police that Rance had asked them to keep their dog on a leash because one of his dogs was protective of their camping area. Later, as the Corrados threw sticks into the water for their dog to retrieve, their dog wandered about 50 feet away from Rance’s tent, the couple said.

Rance’s wife yelled at Rance to “come out here and take care of this,” according to the affidavit. Rance, who is 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds, emerged from the tent and began striking Kelly Corrado.

Andrew Corrado said Rance taunted them while Kelly Corrado lay bleeding on the rocks "saying things like he was going to follow us to our car and follow us home so he’d know where we live. That he had a shotgun in his tent. And to go ahead and call the police, he was just going to run.”

“Nothing gave him the right to do that to us,” Andrew Corrado said. The dogs hadn't even barked at each other, he said.

Kelly Corrado said the attack stunned her.

“I had to learn how to be out in public and not wonder what would happen: ‘Who is going to beat me up? Who’s going to throw me through the air like a piece of driftwood?’” she said.

It’s unclear if Rance was intoxicated at the time because he fled and police didn't track him down until about two weeks later. He told jailers that he drank alcohol daily and used marijuana and methamphetamine from time to time.

Defense attorney Stacey Reding said Rance is an “intelligent and gentle” person when he’s sober.

-- Aimee Green