A 50-year-old thief who stomped on a car owner's head outside a Southeast Portland Safeway store was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday.

Nick Allen Lucas had been hoping for a more lenient sentence, but Multnomah County Circuit Judge Kathleen Dailey said she was taken aback by the callousness of the stranger-to-stranger crime. The unusual confrontation on Aug. 2, 2015, left the car's owner -- 64-year-old Gregory Anderton -- lying brain damaged in a pool of blood in the grocery store parking lot at Southeast 122nd Avenue and Powell Boulevard.

Theories abound as to why Lucas -- now a convicted car thief -- so violently attacked Anderton, the owner of the 1998 Subaru Legacy:

Lucas' defense attorney, Drake Durham, told the judge his client hadn't realized Anderton was the Subaru's rightful owner. Rather, Lucas thought Anderton was stealing "his" car, Durham said.

The car had been stolen from Anderton about six weeks earlier. Prosecutor Glen Banfield said he doesn't believe Lucas' claim that he thought he was legally driving the car, after his girlfriend bought it used months earlier.

According to police and prosecutors, the case unfolded as such:

On June 24, 2015, Anderton reported the Subaru stolen.

On Aug. 2, Anderton spotted his stolen Subaru parked in the Safeway lot about 9 a.m. Anderton still had the car's keys in his pocket, so he drove it across the lot and called 911.

After an officer responded, Anderton decided to move the pick-up truck that he'd driven to the grocery store that day, so his pick-up would be next to him and his Subaru as he continued to speak to the officer.

Video surveillance shows Anderton walking toward his pick-up truck near the store's loading dock when Lucas confronts Anderton.

The video shows Lucas taking a swing at Anderton and Anderton beginning to run.

"Mr. Anderton knows the police officer is just around this corner, if he can only make it," said Banfield, the prosecutor, as he played the video Monday for the judge. "But he doesn't make it."

After a short distance, Anderton can be seen on the video falling to the ground and not moving, and Lucas stomping on him once on the head. It's unclear whether Anderton's brain damage was caused from the fall or the stomping.

Lucas rifled through the unconscious Anderton's pockets, retrieved his pick-up truck keys and drove off.

"He took Mr. Anderton's car, he took his truck and he almost took his life," said Banfield, the prosecutor.

Anderton was rushed to Oregon Health & Science University, where he spent 43 days being treated for a traumatic brain injury before he was released.

Anderton's adult daughter, Taylor Wrenn, told the judge Monday during the hearing was the first time she'd seen the surveillance video. A police detective had advised her not to watch it because of its graphic nature, she said.

Wrenn said her father had worked as a whitewater rafting guide, a stockbroker and most recently a cab driver -- but he can no longer drive his cab because of the assault, she said. She said her dad now lives in an apartment next to her.

"This was a random crime on a 64-year-old man. This could have easily been your father or my neighbor or anybody," Wrenn told the judge.

Wrenn said she was surprised by Lucas' age.

"This isn't an 18- or 19-year-old man who needs some lessons told to him," Wrenn said. "This is a 50-year-old man who stomped on my father's head."

Court records show that his criminal history stretches back more than 30 years, to the time he was a teenager, and includes robbery, home burglary and theft. Lucas told authorities at the time of his arrest that he was using heroin two to three times a day -- and that he'd used the drug for the past decade.

Lucas told authorities he spent most of his adult life in jail or prison -- and he likely acquired post traumatic stress disorder from that. He was living off of Social Security disability and food stamps -- as well as fixing up bicycles by word of mouth out of his home garage -- at the time of the incident, Lucas said.

Anderton also spoke at Monday's hearing. Wearing a dark suit and a tie, he walked slowly and stiffly up to the table where the prosecutor was seated.

He spoke softly. It was clear he had to work hard to enunciate. The part of Anderton's brain that was damaged affects speech, according to the prosecution.

"Unfortunately, I cannot take the salt out of the ocean, so I must tell Mr. Lucas I forgive him," Anderton said.

With that, Lucas broke into tears and began wiping his face with tissues.

Anderton told Lucas he hoped he would "make a departure" from his past and turn around his life, to "somehow learn to enjoy things that we all enjoy, like having jobs and stuff." Anderton gestured back toward his family and friends, seated in the courtroom gallery.

Lucas offered a rambling apology -- in which he said he didn't mean to hurt Anderton but he didn't want to spend so much time in prison that he died there.

"I've got kids and grandkids, and I'd like to be back with them," Lucas said. "I am sorry that I did this. I will try to stay out of trouble."

Although the prosecution had successfully sought 10 years, Lucas wanted 71/2 years. That's the minimum prison sentence that Oregon law allows for the crimes he pleaded no contest to: first-degree robbery, second-degree robbery, second- and third-degree assault and two counts of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

A co-defendant, Kim Chee Eng, 53, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault for his role in the attack. Eng helped chase down Anderton before Lucas stomped on him.

Eng claimed that he stepped in to help Lucas after hearing Lucas yell that Anderton had stolen his car. Eng is scheduled to be sentenced to 21/2 years in prison next month.

-- Aimee Green

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