A Lancaster County jury convicted a West Lampeter Township of stabbing his own father following a three-day trial this month.

The jury found Russell Woodrow Adams-Nicholls, of the 300 block of Crestline Drive, guilty on Sept. 12 of aggravated assault, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. Judge Merill Spahn, who presided over the trial, is scheduled to sentence Adams-Nicholls at a later date.

Adams-Nicholls, 45, repeatedly punched and then stabbed his 80-year-old father in the neck at his father’s Manheim Township residence the evening of Dec. 10, 2024. The stabbing caused Adams-Nicholls’ father significant blood loss and required life-saving surgery which necessitated that he be intubated and sedated and left him hospitalized for four days.

Testifying in his own defense, Adams-Nicholls claimed he went to his father’s residence in the 600 block of Chatham Way that day “an emotional mess.” Though he claimed he was unsure what specifically caused him to lose his temper, Adams-Nicholls admitted that their interaction was “heated” and quickly turned physical.

After punching his father three times, Adams-Nicholls testified that he grabbed a knife and started to “flail” his arms with the weapon in-hand when “all of a sudden there was an enormous amount of blood” emerging from his father’s neck. Earlier in the trial the victim had testified that Adams-Nicholls had selected a knife and then deliberately slashed him with it.

“It was bananas,” Adams-Nicholls told the court.

First Assistant District Attorney Travis Anderson, who prosecuted the case, told the jury Adams-Nicholls’ testimony was “rubbish.”

Regardless of whether or not Adams-Nicholls specifically intended to harm his father, Anderson told the jury in his closing argument, “he did a monstrous thing in this instance.” Anderson quoted Adams-Nicholls’ own testimony that he “bashed” his father multiple times and his own admission to having a “long-standing, deep-seated” frustration with him.

In his testimony Adams-Nicholls also claimed he attempted to retrieve a belt to create a makeshift tourniquet after the stabbing and had always intended to drive his father to the hospital before his father took the keys and drove himself. Anderson countered that not only did Adams-Nicholls not have the medical knowledge to create such a tourniquet, but he also never attempted to contact a neighbor for help even though he knew his father was bleeding profusely and driving alone to a hospital.

Anderson also brought attention to Adams-Nicholls’ actions after the stabbing when he claimed he washed the knife used in the attack and put it away before fleeing the residence – to which Adams-Nicholls testified that “if there’s a dirty dish, I’m going to wash it.”

The jury returned a guilty verdict after about two hours of deliberation.

Following the verdict Judge Spahn granted Anderson’s request that Adams-Nicholls’ bail be increased from $500,000 to $1 million.

Assistant District Attorney Kylie Scott assisted in the prosecution.

Manheim Township Police Det. Jonathan Martin filed the charges.