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Victim in alleged beating still recovering 3 months later

Posted at 7:08 PM, Jan 16, 2013
and last updated 2013-01-16 22:14:24-05

SALT LAKE CITY - Police have few leads in a case where a man was beaten and left for dead nearly three months ago in Pleasant Grove.

Damion Blewett is alive, but severely brain damaged and unable to work. He and his sister say they're happy he survived the attack but worried because the suspects haven't been captured and police don't have many leads.

Blewett says that last October, the suspects hit him in the head with a cinder block in a sock at least five times in an apartment above a Pleasant Grove car repair shop.

"I was asleep on my belly and the first blow was to the back of my head. How could you do that to someone who's asleep? Hit them with a cinder block while they're sleeping," Blewett said.

Blewett says the hits crushed his teeth, nose and orbital bones. He also had cigarette burns on his skin.

"And I had a bunch of cigarette burns on me, like they put cigarettes out on me," Belwett said.

The suspects then left Blewett to die. A roommate finally called his family two days later.

"We found him in a blanket, wrapped up and stuffed under a table. It's horrifying that somebody could do that," said Candace Butler, Blewett's sister.

Blewett says he doesn't remember anything between going to work the morning of the attack and waking up in a hospital bed two weeks later. Now he has to undergo extensive rehabilitation.

"My short term memory is gone, something happened ten minutes ago and I can't remember. I'm learning how to talk again, learning how to read again," Blewett said.

Blewett hasn't been able to work since the attack. Bills are piling up and money is running out. His sister set up an account for anyone who wants to help at Utah Community Credit Union under the name Candace Butler.

Pleasant Grove police say they are making progress in the case and hope to have arrests soon. Blewett and Butler hope tipsters can help them solve the case.

"I'd love to see them arrested and put in prison for what they did, it was really brutal," Butler said.

Anyone with information about the beating can call Pleasant Grove police at 801-785-3506.