A Portland man who demanded keys to the car of a DoorDash delivery person by threatening him with a blowtorch will spend 80 months in prison, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said.
Michael Scott Walton, 30, pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree attempted robbery and attempted assault after police and prosecutors said Walton snuck up on the delivery driver with a flaming blowtorch further fueled by aerosol, singeing his hair and melting his jacket.
The driver was picking up an order from 7-Eleven around 2:30 a.m. Oct. 18 in the Centennial neighborhood of Southeast Portland, according to a probable cause affidavit. The man felt heat coming from the driver’s side door of his car, and looked over to see Walton with a blowtorch the size of a small fire extinguisher pointed at his head.
“Give me your keys,” Walton said, according to the district attorney’s office.
The driver refused and Walton walked away, down Southeast 148th Avenue, the affidavit said.
Portland police found Walton nearby and arrested him. The driver said Walton was the one wielding the blowtorch.
Walton was convicted of assaulting a Portland police officer in 2014, when he told an officer he had been using meth.
He was also convicted of attempted first-degree robbery and unlawful use of a weapon in February 2016 after he attempted to steal two hatchets from a Home Depot in Southeast Portland. Walton walked out of the store with the hatchets up his sleeves on April 6, 2015, and when security tried to stop him he swung the hatchets in circles while backing away, according to a probable cause affidavit.
He then boarded a MAX train, where witnesses said he chased after two juvenile passengers with the axes before the train came to a stop, the affidavit said. Police arrested Walton shortly after. No one was injured.
– Austin De Dios; adedios@oregonian.com; (503) 319-9744
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