Eric Jones
Eric Jones, 34, was arrested on Saturday after he allegedly spent several hours terrorizing, beating, and strangling his girlfriend, at one point even confining her in a car for several hours.
Officers pulled over a maroon Ford Focus on the 9200 block of Birchwood Pike that was thought to be connected to a stabbing on the 9800 block of the same street shortly before.
Two individuals were found inside, the defendant and his girlfriend. Both were placed into custody and separated for interviews.
The victim spoke to authorities, but was clear that she wanted to be where the defendant could not hear because she was afraid of him.
She said that over the course of the evening, he had repeatedly hit her, strangled her, and threatened to kill her.
She also produced a recording she had supposedly taken of the defendant without his knowledge, and officers reported they could audibly hear the defendant threatening her life if he left him.
According to the victim, the incident began much earlier in the night when she went to pick him up to pay his phone bill. They had been fighting all evening and he kept her locked in her car.
Another officer advised that he had responded to a separate disorder involving a car that matched the description and there a witness stated he had seen a male suspect inside the car grab a female subject by the head and smash it into the steering wheel of the car.
Finally the victim stated that the fight had continued when he told her to drive to his relative’s house on the 9800 block of Birchwood Pike. As they pulled into the driveway, he allegedly continued to threaten her life.
She said that he then began choking her with his arm, then with a T-shirt. She tried to scream, but he yelled that he would punch her out her voice box so she couldn’t scream, and then punched her in the throat.
At this point she sounded the horn with her foot, bringing out a large number of people who started to fight the defendant, ultimately hitting him with a baseball bat before the defendant and victim could flee.
As a result of her testimony and the injuries the victim sustained, Jones was charged with aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping. His bond is currently set at $10,000.