MADISON TOWNSHIP — A 34-year-old Madison Township man was arrested early Thursday morning for allegedly stabbing another adult man multiple times Wednesday afternoon.
Zachary M. Zeiter of 495 N. McElroy Road was taken into custody without incident at 1:30 a.m. as he attempted to return to his residence, according to Richland County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Jim Sweat.
Zeiter was booked into the county jail on a charge of felonious assault, a second-degree felony, and was arraigned Thursday morning in Mansfield Municipal Court. Bond was set at $50,000 by a municipal court magistrate.
If Zeiter is able to post bond, he will be subject to electronic monitoring and ordered not to have any contact with the victim, according to Mansfield Municipal Court online records.
The victim, who authorities have not identified, remained in stable condition Thursday morning in a Cleveland-area hospital, according to Sweat. The victim was taken there Wednesday by medical helicopter.
“Sheriff (Steve) Sheldon extends his appreciation to his staff and members of the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force for their diligent work on this investigation,” Sweat said.
According to Richland County Auditor’s Office, Zeiter purchased the North McElroy Road residence in 2016.
“We were sitting on the house, anticipating him trying to return home,” Sweat said Thursday morning. “He walked up on foot and we were able to take him into custody without incident.”
It’s not the first time Zeiter has been charged with felonious assault.
The 6-2, 195-pound defendant was charged with the same crime in 2019, according to Richland County Common Pleas Court online records.
In that incident, he charged a Richland County Sheriff’s Office deputy during a traffic stop. That deputy radioed for assistance. When another RCSO officer intervened and Zeiter was subsequently handcuffed, he bit an officer’s forearm.
That case was resolved in 2020 when Zeiter pleaded guilty to assault against a law enforcement officer. He was sentenced to three years of probation on the fourth-degree felony.
Zeiter was arrested in June of 2021 for violating terms of his probation. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison and three years of probation upon his release. Zeiter was given credit for 333 days in the county jail, according to the online case file.
The incident Wednesday began when UH Samaritan Hospital in Ashland contacted the RCSO and said a male victim had arrived with stab wounds.
According to a press release issued at 3:21 p.m. by Sheldon, authorities were contacted at approximately noon about a possible stabbing in the 400 block of North McElroy Road.
“The victim had gone to the hospital for treatment and the information regarding the suspect was not very thorough,” Sheldon said at the time.
“Deputies responded to the location and the suspect was not located at the residence. The sheriff’s office is in the process of obtaining a search warrant for the residence,” he said.
The stabbing and search for the suspect led to the soft lockdown of two nearby Madison Local School District buildings on Wednesday afternoon.
Madison Comprehensive High School and Madison Junior High School were placed on a soft lockdown. Administrators at both both buildings sent a text message to parents/guardians in the district to advise the details of the situation in their respective buildings.
Supt. Rob Peterson later posted a statement on the district’s Facebook page:
