By Patti Weaver

 

  (Stillwater, Okla.) — A 66-year-old Cushing man, who remains free on $15,000 bond with an order to have no contact with his alleged victim, has been scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 1 on a felony charge accusing him of beating his girlfriend with a baseball bat and damaging her cell phone.
    Due to his criminal record, Joe David Wood could be given a prison term of 20 years to life if convicted of domestic assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after two prior felony convictions. Wood could also be given two years in jail if convicted of malicious injury to her cell phone and methamphetamine possession.
  Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Justin Henninger was sent on Memorial Day to the Stillwater Medical Center on a report of domestic violence on a woman being treated for her injuries involving a baseball bat, his affidavit alleged.
    In an interview recorded on the deputy’s county-issued body camera, the woman “informed me her boyfriend, Joe Wood, had hit her with a homemade baseball bat,” which was about two feet to two and one-half feet long and about two inches in diameter, his affidavit alleged.
    Wood’s girlfriend said the couple “had been in a romantic relationship on and off for approximately seven years. She told me they had gotten back together for the past 3-4 months. They do not currently live with each other and have their own residences,” the deputy wrote in his affidavit.
    After leaving Wood’s residence to take another man to his home, she returned and “learned Joe had locked the door with her property inside that she had brought over, which contained some clothes, toiletry items and her tablet,” the affidavit alleged.
    Wood’s girlfriend said that she “was banging on the door and Joe told her that he was going to call the cops and tell them she was trespassing. She told me this was going on for approximately 30 minutes. She told me she was talking trash to him while trying to get Joe to open the door,” the deputy alleged in his affidavit.
    When Wood eventually opened the door, she said “she could see the black bat in his hand at this time, and (he) told her if she gave him her phone she could come and get her stuff,” the affidavit alleged.
    “She gave him her phone and came inside. (She) told me he smashed her phone on the asphalt, and once she arrived in the kitchen area where her stuff was, he hit her on the side of her head with the bat,” the deputy alleged in his affidavit.
    She said “she did not want to get hit in the head anymore, so she tried to protect her head with her left forearm area. She was able to show me a bruise on her left back thigh area and she showed another injury on her left ankle. She told me she was able to run out after she was hit in the ankle. (She) also informed me while Joe was hitting her with a bat, he was telling her that he hated her and she is a liar,” the deputy alleged in his affidavit.
    The next day the deputy talked to the woman at another location where he photographed her left ankle, back side of her left thigh, left forearm, upper left triceps area, her left shoulder, left ear, and the left side of her head, according to his affidavit.
    Wood’s girlfriend, “told me she was hit in the head four times — three times on the left side of her head and once on the back side of her head. After this, she used her left arm to help from getting hit in the head. At this point she fell to the ground in the kitchen.
    “He continued to hit her with the bat and (she) was struck on the left lower and upper arm, back of her thigh, ankle, and on her left shoulder. After being hit in the ankle, she got up and ran out of the house and left. She then went to one of her friends’ residence to stay before she went to Stillwater Medical Center,” the deputy alleged in his affidavit.
    Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator L.A. Kellison obtained a search warrant for Wood’s home where a light brown bat with a black handle, which was about 22 inches long, was found by the back door, the affidavit alleged. After Wood was arrested, Deputy Henninger asked “if he would talk to me and he stated no,” the affidavit said.
    In a petition for an emergency protective order issued on June 1, Wood’s now ex-girlfriend alleged “As he was hitting me, he was saying he should just go ahead and kill me. I fear that he will kill me.”
    According to court records, in 2018 Wood was convicted in Payne County of possessing a .22 magnum handgun after a prior felony conviction, for which he was given a five-year suspended sentence except 30 days in jail, but nine months later his probation was revoked to 45 days in jail.
    Wood had previously been convicted in Payne County of aggravated assault and battery in 2004, for which he was given a five-year deferred sentence in 2005 that was changed two years later to a five-year suspended sentence.