by: Alex Byington 23 minutes ago _AlexByington
FOX Sports analyst Mark Sanchez was released from an Indianapolis hospital Sunday and subsequently booked into the Marion County (Ind.) jail on a felony battery charge stemming from a violent altercation with a delivery driver in the early morning hours of Oct. 4. Sanchez was stabbed multiple times after the former NFL and USC quarterback allegedly assaulted the 69-year-old Peter Tole in an alley outside the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis.
Sanchez spoke publicly for the first time since the altercation, providing a brief statement to FOX 59 reporter Russ McQuaid upon entering the Marion County jail wearing a sling around his right arm. Sanchez is facing one Level 5 felony battery charge that carries a potenial sentence of 1-6 years in jail, as well as three misdemeanors for battery with injury, unlawful entry into a motor vehicle and public intoxication for an assault that left Tole beaten and with a large gash across his left cheek.
“Right now I am just kind of focused on my recovery and I just want to thank the first responders, Eskenazi Hospital, Marion County Sheriff, and the Indianapolis Police Department, Metro PD,” Sanchez said, according to FOX 59’s Angela Ganote. “But I’m focused on my recovery, and I just want to see my wife, I want to see my son, my two baby girls. (There will) be a day to answer all these questions, and unfortunately today is not that day.”
When asked if he had any words for his victim, Peter Tole, Sanchez deflected and instead thanked his surgeon: “I guess the real thing here is I just want to thank Dr. (Lindsey) Mossler, the surgeon, she saved my life. So I’m grateful for that.”