A 47-year-old man whose probation in an earlier assault case had been ended early by a Charlotte County mental health court is now accused of slashing a 70-year-old shopper with a box cutter inside a Punta Gorda Publix, in an attack that reopened questions about how the court system handled his prior case.
Punta Gorda police say Ramsey Thomas Lyons faces a felony charge of aggravated battery on a person 65 years or older after the Oct. 10 attack at the Publix Super Market on Tamiami Trail. According to a sworn probable cause affidavit, Lyons approached the victim from behind shortly before 4 p.m. while the man shopped, then struck him. When the victim turned around, Lyons allegedly stood staring at him while holding a box cutter blade. The victim ran to the front of the store after realizing his hands were covered in blood.
Officers arrived and found Lyons standing at the front of the store with his hands on his head. A box cutter was recovered from the aisle where the attack occurred. First responders took the victim to Fawcett Memorial Hospital with a severe laceration running four to six inches from his left cheek to his neck, along with a minor cut to his upper chest, according to police.
Lyons waived his Miranda rights and told investigators he had a deep dislike for “the 1960’s era” and had planned to kill someone in the store that day, according to the affidavit. Police say he targeted the victim because the shopper “looked like he was from the 1960’s” and that Lyons felt like “acing him out.”
“I just pulled it out of my pocket and stuck it in his neck,” Lyons said, according to the affidavit.
Lyons also told police he had mental health issues, had spent two days planning the attack, and deliberately dropped the weapon in the aisle so responding officers would not shoot him or use a Taser.
An Earlier Case, and an Early Release
This was not Lyons’ first violent encounter. On March 13, 2025, he assaulted a 16-year-old at a Wawa gas station in Port Charlotte, sucker-punching the teen in the face while the boy held a door open. After his arrest, the 20th Judicial Circuit placed Lyons into a specialized Mental Health Court diversion program rather than pursuing a conventional criminal track.
The teen’s mother, Shawna Gentry, told Fox News Digital she pushed back against that decision, asking the state prosecutor to pursue jail time, alcohol classes and probation instead. She said she warned court officials at the time that Lyons remained an active, volatile threat.
Court minutes from Charlotte County show that on July 6, the court terminated Lyons’ probation early, with no objection from the State Attorney’s Office. The minutes included a handwritten note reading “Graduation! Congratulations!” alongside a hand-drawn smiley face.
“The way the court handled it, the way the state attorney handled it was very odd to me,” Gentry said. “They told us they were sending him to a mental health facility, but he never went to a secured place. From what we saw, they just put him right back onto outpatient probation in our neighborhood and cut us completely out of the process.”
Gentry also pushed back on the idea that Lyons’ attacks stemmed from a genuine psychiatric break, saying she believed he used mental health language deliberately once confronted by police.
“When the sheriff came, it was almost like he knew exactly what to say,” Gentry said. “He immediately said, ‘Well, I’ve got mental health issues.’ He was so quick to use that word.”
She said Lyons appeared visibly intoxicated during the 2025 Wawa assault, and said the court gave prior victims no tracking updates, safety alerts or transitional monitoring after his release from probation.
“You Were Right”
Months after his early release, Lyons walked into the Punta Gorda Publix. Gentry said her son learned of the attack from social media.
“My son saw it on TikTok, came running to me, and I could see the emotion in his face,” Gentry said. “Big old tears welled up in his eyes and he said, ‘Mom, the guy that hit me just stabbed an old man at Publix. You were right.'”
“The first thing out of my son’s mouth to the sheriff back in 2025 was that if that man had a gun or a knife, he wouldn’t be here today. Now an innocent senior citizen is in the hospital because the system refused to hold him accountable.”
The State Attorney’s Office for the 20th Judicial Circuit did not respond to a request for comment by publication deadline.
The Broader Picture
Mental health courts have expanded nationally as an alternative to standard prosecution for defendants with psychiatric diagnoses. The National Treatment Court Resource Center counted 679 adult mental health courts operating nationwide at the end of 2024, and a 2021 analysis of 30 evaluations linked participation in such programs with 74% lower odds of reoffending.
But other research complicates that picture. A study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence found that an offender’s prior criminal history, not their psychiatric diagnosis, was the strongest predictor of whether they would reoffend.
Lyons remains held without bond at the Charlotte County Jail. His arraignment is scheduled for Nov. 16 at the Charlotte County Justice Center. Court records show he declined a public defender, and it is unclear whether he has retained private counsel.
