Man faces charges after stalking, beating woman
A Chattanooga man faces several charges, including stalking and false imprisonment, after breaking into a woman’s home, blocking her from leaving and punching her.
Police were called to the woman’s Brainerd-area home at around 5:20 a.m. on June 9, according to Hamilton County court records. The woman told police that Donyell Holland, 38, broke into her home through an unlocked window after she told him to stop texting and threatening her.
“He began interrogating her as to where she had been and why she was just getting home,” an officer wrote in a criminal complaint, which constituted stalking because he knew she’d just gotten home.
The woman told Holland to leave, but he refused, court records state. Then when she tried to leave, he blocked the front door with his body. That is what brought on the false imprisonment charge.
The woman then left through a side door, but Holland met her in the backyard where he punched her in the eye, according to court records.
She fought back, the officer wrote, but he “slammed her on the ground … then he pulled her hair, and wrapped his arm around her throat from behind and choked her.”
The woman told police that Holland drove off after that.
Police noted her right eye was starting to turn blue. She then added that her left eye was still black from Holland hitting her a month ago, court records state.
Holland was arrested three days later on June 12 and charged with stalking, false imprisonment, aggravated burglary and two counts of domestic assault.
Holland has an extensive arrest history in Hamilton County dating back to 2003, according to online court records. Several of
his charges are drug- and traffic-related. But he has at least four aggravated assault and aggravated robbery charges between 2003 and 2009.
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