Man's Video of “Road Rage” on Elderly Driver Leads to His Own Conviction

Thomas Sikes faces nine years behind bars in part because of a recording on his own mobile phone

A San Diego man was convicted Wednesday of a violent road rage attack in part because of video he recorded on his own cell phone.

Jurors convicted Thomas Sikes, 56, of assault causing great bodily injury and elder abuse for an April 30 fight in an El Cajon parking lot.

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Thomas Sikes listens to closing arguments in court on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015.

Prosecutors characterized Sikes as a “violent bully who can’t control his anger” and presented the recording Sikes took of his confrontation with 76-year-old Ron Tornocello in a CVS Pharmacy parking lot.

“This is the a—hole that is driving here, came in here and ran through this parking lot,” Sikes says on the video as he's sitting behind the wheel of his own car in the parking lot.

Sikes continues recording as he walks up to Tornocello's car and asks him, "Do you have anything to say about your driving habit?”

A short surveillance clip released by officials shows Sikes walking across the parking lot, approaching the victim’s parked car and opening the driver's side door.

Tornocello was sitting behind the wheel of his car just outside the pharmacy's doors. He can be heard explaining to Sikes how his wife was being moved from a rehab center.

“You're going to be in a rehabilitation center in a minute,” Sikes warned.

That's when things got heated.

On the video shown to jurors in Sikes' trial Wednesday, Tornocello flipped off Sikes.

Then, as a CVS employee providing play-by-play to a 911 dispatcher described, Sikes threw a punch.

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Images of victim Ron Tornocello shown in court (L) after the incident and (R) after surgery.

Tornocello, an Army veteran, was hospitalized for several days and required two facial reconstructive surgeries including one to repair his left eye.

A defense attorney argued his client had acted in self-defense and that it was Tornocello who first kicked Sikes in the groin.

Jurors rejected that argument and convicted Sikes on all counts. He'll face nine years in prison when he's sentenced. 

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