Staff Writer

A Union man is accused of holding his girlfriend against her will and assaulting her.

Christopher Scott Austin, 20, of 250 Old English Road was charged Tuesday by the Union County Sheriff's Office with criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature and kidnapping.

The woman he allegedly assaulted, Tonya Holt Ingle, 36, of 431 Pacolet St., Jonesville, was charged with hindering police after she told deputies who came to arrest Austin that he was not at her house.

According to a report, Sgt. James Wicks and Deputy Wendy Childers were dispatched to Wallace Thomson Hospital's emergency room on Sept. 19 to meet with Ms. Ingle.

She said Austin had struck her several times in the face, head and upper body with his fist, pulled her hair, held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. Deputies noted a series of bruises across her right cheek, a large cut behind her right ear, scratches and redness to her left cheek and other bruises and injuries.

Ms. Ingle said she and Austin had been together most of the day and he was agitated about a verbal altercation he had had with his uncle and a second, unrelated altercation he had had with strangers while playing pool at Shady's.

She said they went to visit his grandmother's house and she told him she no longer could deal with his temper. She said Austin began hitting her. She said she tried to leave but was struck in the ear, began bleeding and fell on the ground. She was allowed to go to the bathroom and clean her wounds with the help of the grandmother.

She said Austin came into the bathroom, held a silver pocket knife to her throat and threatened to kill her, himself and everyone else in the house. He pulled her into a bedroom, pulled her hair ad began apologizing. She said she tried to leave again but he caught her and began hitting her in the ribs,

She then was able to leave and drove herself to the emergency room.

The attending physician said the wound behind Ms. Ingle's ear would require stitches.

Tuesday, Sgt. James Wicks, Cpl. Dean Gibson and Deputies Wendy Childers and Tim Gaston went to Ms. Ingle's home with an arrest warrant for Austin. After they had knocked at the door for several minutes, she came to the door. Gibson told her officers had arrest warrants for Austin. She told the officers three times Austin was not in the home. Gibson and Gaston found Austin hiding behind clothes in Ms. Ingle's bedroom closet.

Thefts

On 843 Main St., Buffalo, Nixon's Car Wash, someone broke into a vacuum cleaner and took around $200 in change. The victim told Deputy Roger Hill and Deputy Ashley Jackson that the incident happened sometime between 8 a.m. on Monday and 8 a.m. Tuesday. Damage to the vaccum cleaner was estimated at $200.

Also on Tuesday, damage was reported to a rental house on 105 Rocky Drive, Buffalo. The victim told Cpl. Jared Gilstrap that coils were pulled out of a central air conditioning unit. The unit, worth around $2,500, was destroyed.

At the South Hills Complex on 387 Hawthorne Road, it was reported to Sgt. James Johnson that someone had broken wooden bench seats, put holes in a patio, pulled a barbecue grill out of the ground, put holes in the walls of a storage building, tipped over a portable restroom and stole the skateboard park sign. Damage is estimated at $850.

Also on Tuesday, a victim on 129 Poinsett St. told Johnson that someone took her push mower. At some point during the past two weeks, the mower was taken from under her porch. It is worth $250.

Teen-arrested

Tuesday, Gilstrap was in the Lipsey Street area assisting the Union Public Safety Department on a call. Cpl. Tommy Hart called out to a 16-year-old boy that he wanted to talk to him. As the boy walked toward officers, Gilstrap saw him drop a plastic bag from his right hand onto the sidewalk. Gilstrap picked up the bag and saw that it had a small, white rock-like substance believed to be crack inside. The boy was charged with possession of crack cocaine.

Man arrested

Deputies Gibson and Gaston were called to the parking lot of Palmetto Inn late Monday in reference to a possibly intoxicated man sleeping in a car. They found Rahgeem Smith, 30, 147 Minnow Bridge Road about to get out of a vehicle. Smith admitted he had been drinking. He was arrested. Deputies searched his vehicle and found a .40 caliber handgun in the trunk. A check on Smith through the National Crime Information Computer revealed he had been convicted of a crime that prohibited him from owning a handgun. He was charged with being drunk in public and with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Flim-flam attempt

A 76-year-old Buffalo woman averted being a flim-flam victim Monday.

A report said the victim told Johnson she received a phone call from a woman claiming to be with Arthur State Bank. The caller said the elderly woman needed to renew her security contract so no one could access her bank information or make illegal withdrawals. The caller said the woman needed to send $148 and she would call her back with an address to which the money could sent. The victim called the bank and found that no such contract existed.

About two hours later, a second phone call came from the woman claiming to be with “Secure Accounts Service” of Tampa, Fla. The elderly woman began asking questions and the caller hung up.