Man charged in stabbing
A local man was arrested Wednesday morning on a felony warrant in connection with the alleged stabbing and assault of another man in May.
Gerald Walter Thomas, 48, who lists a Mountain Pine Road address, was taken into custody around 9:45 a.m. at the Garland County Sheriff’s Department and charged with first-degree battery, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Thomas remained in custody Thursday in lieu of a $5,000 bond and is set to appear today in Garland County District Court.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on May
14, a man was brought to CHI
St. Vincent Hot Springs by a female witness and the man stated he had been stabbed by another man he knew as “Gerald the German.”
The victim had “significant
lacerations” to his left forearm and minor cuts on the left side of his neck and left ear. The affidavit notes he could not be interviewed at that time due to being sedated by hospital staff because of his injuries.
The woman stated she had driven the victim to the hospital in his truck from her residence in the 2100 block of Old Bear Road. She said she had been inside her residence when she heard “yelling coming from outside” and walked out to see Thomas, who she knows, walking toward her neighbor’s house and saw the victim bleeding from his left arm.
She said the victim got into his truck to leave and she got in and made him slide over to the passenger side so she could drive “due to how bad he was bleeding.”
On May 20, the victim was interviewed at the sheriff’s department and stated he had gone to the woman’s residence on Old Bear and he saw “Gerald” standing beside his jeep in an adjacent yard as he arrived.
The victim went in the house and walked to a back bedroom. He said “Gerald” came in and walked back to the bedroom where he was and “started swinging” at him with a large knife, described as about 18-inches long.
He said he was able to evade “Gerald” and make his way to the driveway, but then “Gerald” caught up to him and “hit him” multiple times with the knife in his left arm. At one point, he was able to grab a long stick and tried to hit “Gerald” to get him away from him.
The stick broke and that was when the woman came outside and at that point “Gerald” ran away. He said the woman drove him to the hospital where he required surgery to repair “multiple breaks in his arm.”
A warrant was issued for Thomas’ arrest on May 22.