Thursday, August 15, 2013
Resident Reports Acquaintance Strangled Her At Front Door, Then Fled
A Columbia man was taken into police custody Wednesday night after a Long Branch Road resident reported he strangled her after knocking upon her door.
Deputies with the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department were dispatched shortly before 8:00 p.m. on an unwanted person call. While en route, deputies were notified that the suspect had left the victim’s home. They were quickly informed that the vehicle occupants had become involved in an altercation on the roadway.
Deputies found a vehicle had left the roadway near Gandy Church of Christ, coming to rest in a ditch. The occupants reported that another driver had run them off the road while attempting to hit them with his vehicle.
Deputies requested that troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol be dispatched to investigate the wreck while they instituted a search of the area.
Shortly afterwards deputies were notified of a second wreck, this one on Spring Creek Road. When they arrived at the scene, deputies report that driver Charles Fredrick Staggs, 34, of 303 Granada Drive, Columbia, appeared to be highly intoxicated.
They report that he was very uncooperative and that, “Upon exiting the vehicle by assistance, did attempt to allude officers.” Staggs was later secured and placed under arrest.
Officers report that Staggs continued to struggle, refusing to comply with their requests. They requested that troopers be dispatched to the second crash site, as well. Once on scene troopers conducted a regimen of field sobriety tests, then informed Staggs he was being arrested on a charge of driving while under the influence of an intoxicant.
Deputies report that, although Staggs agreed to be transported to Crockett Hospital for a blood alcohol test, when they arrived he refused to submit to the test. He was subsequently transported to the Lawrence County Detention Center for incarceration.
Once Staggs was secured deputies went to speak with the victim of the assault. She reported that she had been startled by loud knocking on her door. She said that when she first looked out she had not recognized Staggs, who was an old family friend she had not seen for some time, but that she recognized him once he began to speak. She told officers that Staggs talked about the death of his mother and asked whether she knew his mother had passed.
When she said she had been aware of her death, she said Staggs became irate, grabbed her around the neck, and began to strangle her.
During the struggle he reportedly grabbed her head with his hands and began to squeeze it. She said that she became entangled in her dog’s chain. When she attempted to get away the chain caused injury to her hip.
The victim reported that during the altercation Staggs was yelling for a female inside the car to help him. She said that the woman exited the car and came toward them, but that she was able to free herself at that point and ran inside, grabbed a knife for protection, and called 911.
Staggs was booked under charges that include aggravated assault and being a fugitive from justice. He is scheduled to answer the charges in Lawrence County General Sessions Court on October 18, 2013.
