Nathaniel Walter Radimak has been sentenced in a series of assaults caught on dashcam video. (Screenshot from Los Angeles KABC/YouTube)
The 36-year-old driver of a Tesla caught on dashcam video threatening motorists and damaging cars on freeways across Southern California has been sentenced to five years in prison for a series of road-rage attacks.
Nathaniel Radimak was found guilty of assault, criminal threats, vandalism, and elder abuse, online court records show. He’s expected to appear for a restitution hearing on Nov. 8, online court records show. He’s being held at the LA County Jail, online jail records show.
Some of his victims spoke out after the sentencing, saying they were still terrified.
“I just feel like he is going to get out and be infuriated, especially since all our names are out in public record, for the majority of us,” a victim told Los Angeles station KABC. “Especially since all our names are out in public record, for the majority of us,” the woman told the station. “I feel like it’s definitely still not over, especially because five years isn’t enough.”
Another victim said he attacked her on a freeway in November in an incident caught on dashcam video.
“He went around me and completely stopped, and this was on a full freeway, and just got out of the car and started hitting me,” she said, the station reported. “I felt if I didn’t get away, he would have cracked my window.”
The attacks terrified the victims, District Attorney George Gascón said then.
“Motorists in Los Angeles shouldn’t have to live in fear of being attacked while simply driving on the freeway,” he said.
In Southern California, he’s accused of attacks on motorists dating to January 2020, prosecutors said. On Jan. 11 of this year, he allegedly used a pipe to hit two cars, one on an LA-area freeway and the other after following a couple from a shopping mall in Pasadena, prosecutors said.
In November, Radimak allegedly threatened two women and broke one of their car’s headlights. In June, he threatened a 74-year-old woman outside a doctor’s office in Glendale, prosecutors said. Glendale is about 7 miles north of downtown LA.
He had been facing drug possession and battery charges from an attack in Hollywood in January 2020 when officials said they found steroids and more than $30,000 in his car, officials said.
Radimak has a criminal history dating nearly 20 years and spanning several states, officials said.
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