A Hermitage man who severely cut two Sharon men with a broken beer bottle during a picnic brawl last September was found guilty of all six assault counts against him and faces up to 40 years in state prison.

Alexander Yankevich, 45, of 301 Kossuth St., was convicted on two counts of aggravated assault and one count of simple assault for each of the victims.

Yankevich had been walking along North Water Avenue in Hermitage on Sept. 15 when someone attending a Sharpsville Container Corp. picnic at the Fraternal Order of Police picnic area invited him to the picnic. Witnesses said he "looked unkempt and seemed like could use the free meal and drinks," police had said.

When the picnic was wrapping up at about 9 that night, someone spotted Yankevich loading up on take-home leftovers and told him to put the food down, police said. Yankevich grabbed an empty beer bottle out of a burn barrel and broke it into a jagged weapon, said Assistant District Attorney Timothy Bonner, who prosecuted the case.

Yankevich lunged at Isaac Friday, then 46, and jabbed him in the face with the bottle, Bonner said. It took 17 stitches to close three different wounds around Friday's mouth, Bonner said. Bonner said he then roundhoused 38-year-old Donald Shurbutt, who was standing nearby -- making a "reverse L-shaped" gash that started at the top of Shurbutt's head, went down to near his left ear and then cut across his temple to within inches of his left eye; the slash cut a temporal artery.

The most serious of the aggravated assault charges filed against Yankevich alleged he intended to cause serious bodily harm to both of his victims -- either by killing, seriously injuring or permanently disfiguring them. The lesser aggravated assault charges alleged he injured his victims with a deadly weapon, while the simple assault charges claimed he simply caused bodily injury.

For sentencing, the lesser charges merge into the more serious aggravated assault charges. Each second-degree felony charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 to 20 years. Yankevich could be sentenced consecutively on the two counts, adding up to a maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years. A sentence hearing before Mercer County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Dobson is set for 9 a.m. Aug. 9.