Tangled up in 'Vitamin C'
05-10-2008, 01:47 PM
NEW CASTLE -- A high school student is in protective custody after she was allegedly attacked this week for snoring too loudly.
The girl, 14, was asleep in bed Wednesday night when her mother's boyfriend allegedly crawled out of his bed in the next room, grabbed a wooden-handled claw hammer and used it to beat the girl's head, police said.
Charles A. Williamson, 46, 4989 W. Henry County Road 200-N, is charged with two counts of battery, both Class C felonies carrying standard four-year prison terms, and a single count of criminal confinement, a Class D felony with a standard 18-month sentence.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the girl's mother, Bobbie Jo Davis, 42, watched Williamson from the hallway strike her daughter four or five times with the hammer's handle. The two had lived with Williamson since October.
After the attack, the couple returned to bed, and Davis told Williamson he shouldn't have beaten the girl, who has attention deficit disorder and recently had stopped taking her medicine.
Davis didn't seek medical attention for her daughter, and instead, according to court documents, heard her daughter cry, fall asleep and begin snoring again 20 minutes later.
The next morning Davis noticed her daughter's eye was red, and the girl complained of a headache. She gave her daughter an aspirin and sent her to school on the bus. Police were called to New Castle Chrysler High School when the victim told teachers she had been beaten with a hammer.
Davis is charged with a single count of neglect of a dependent, a Class D felony.
According to the court documents, Davis gave differing accounts to police. With one detective she said she watched Williamson beat her daughter. But with another officer, she said when the girl wasn't taking her prescription medication she often hurt herself, using hammers and boards or even rubbing her face in the grass.
Williamson told police that the girl had "mental problems," but "she was not a big problem.
He had asked the girl and her mother to move out however because both of them snore. He said the snoring had become a big problem.
He denied hitting the teen with the claw hammer, though police did retrieve a hammer from his bedroom.
Williamson also admitted that he and Davis both had spanked the girl with a belt when she misbehaved. When asked about red marks on the girl's wrists, Williamson, an officer at the New Castle Correctional Facility, said the marks were from the times he handcuffed the girl as they wrestled.
A medical chart submitted along with court documents notes the girl complained that she had been handcuffed to her bed. There was no sign of sexual abuse, the chart noted.
Both Williamson and Davis made initial appearances in Henry Superior Court 1 on Friday. Davis' pre-trial conference is set for 9 a.m. Aug. 14, and Williamson's is scheduled 30 minutes later. Their trials are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on Sept. 2.
The girl, 14, was asleep in bed Wednesday night when her mother's boyfriend allegedly crawled out of his bed in the next room, grabbed a wooden-handled claw hammer and used it to beat the girl's head, police said.
Charles A. Williamson, 46, 4989 W. Henry County Road 200-N, is charged with two counts of battery, both Class C felonies carrying standard four-year prison terms, and a single count of criminal confinement, a Class D felony with a standard 18-month sentence.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the girl's mother, Bobbie Jo Davis, 42, watched Williamson from the hallway strike her daughter four or five times with the hammer's handle. The two had lived with Williamson since October.
After the attack, the couple returned to bed, and Davis told Williamson he shouldn't have beaten the girl, who has attention deficit disorder and recently had stopped taking her medicine.
Davis didn't seek medical attention for her daughter, and instead, according to court documents, heard her daughter cry, fall asleep and begin snoring again 20 minutes later.
The next morning Davis noticed her daughter's eye was red, and the girl complained of a headache. She gave her daughter an aspirin and sent her to school on the bus. Police were called to New Castle Chrysler High School when the victim told teachers she had been beaten with a hammer.
Davis is charged with a single count of neglect of a dependent, a Class D felony.
According to the court documents, Davis gave differing accounts to police. With one detective she said she watched Williamson beat her daughter. But with another officer, she said when the girl wasn't taking her prescription medication she often hurt herself, using hammers and boards or even rubbing her face in the grass.
Williamson told police that the girl had "mental problems," but "she was not a big problem.
He had asked the girl and her mother to move out however because both of them snore. He said the snoring had become a big problem.
He denied hitting the teen with the claw hammer, though police did retrieve a hammer from his bedroom.
Williamson also admitted that he and Davis both had spanked the girl with a belt when she misbehaved. When asked about red marks on the girl's wrists, Williamson, an officer at the New Castle Correctional Facility, said the marks were from the times he handcuffed the girl as they wrestled.
A medical chart submitted along with court documents notes the girl complained that she had been handcuffed to her bed. There was no sign of sexual abuse, the chart noted.
Both Williamson and Davis made initial appearances in Henry Superior Court 1 on Friday. Davis' pre-trial conference is set for 9 a.m. Aug. 14, and Williamson's is scheduled 30 minutes later. Their trials are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on Sept. 2.