By SYDNEY KENT
A Bluffton couple is facing domestic battery charges after a drunken physical altercation in their 9-month-old daughter’s bedroom.
Officers were called to a residence on Oak Street shortly after midnight on Oct. 6 for a domestic dispute. The caller, identified as Carrie Campbell, 30, stated that she was choked and a male, later identified as Jeffrey Hall, 33, would not give her their baby.
According to a probable cause affidavit, both Hall and Campbell told officers that Campbell woke Hall up for sexual intercourse. The two reportedly began to argue, which woke up the child. Hall reportedly went to the nursery to console the child.
The two then gave officers different accounts of what happened next.
Hall advised Campbell followed him to the nursery, where the argument escalated after Hall refused to give Campbell their child due to her being intoxicated.
He reported that Campbell hit him in the jaw, and he pushed her out of the room near the base of her neck.
Campbell confirmed she struck Hall first after he “said something stupid.” However, she reported Hall bent her over the child’s changing table backwards while strangling her, pushed her to the ground, and shoved her from the nursery into the next room. Campbell said the strangulation impeded her breathing temporarily.
Campbell also told officers the pair had been drinking prior to the argument.
A Bluffton police officer determined both parties would be charged with domestic battery and that Hall was the more aggressive of the two.
Because there was no child care or nearby family available, Hall was the only one arrested at the time. Campbell was arrested on Wednesday, Oct. 18, approximately two weeks after the incident occurred.
Hall was charged with an additional charge of strangulation, a Level 6 felony. His bond was set at $30,000. A pretrial conference is scheduled for his case in the Wells Superior Court at 9 a.m. on Nov. 27.
Campbell’s bond was set at $25,000. At her initial hearing Thursday afternoon, Campbell advised she wished to retain private counsel for this case. Campbell is scheduled for a status of counsel hearing at 9 a.m. on Dec. 4 in the Wells Superior Court.
sydney@news-banner.com
