A Tuttle Avenue resident has been charged with two counts of domestic battery against a pregnant woman and battery resulting in bodily injury to a household member under the age of 14.
James Robert Edwards, 35, of Crawfordsville allegedly struck a pregnant household member and caused injury to a three-year-old child the morning of Oct. 17.
Court documents show he officially faces three charges, however, police say Edwards is also charged with domestic battery on a spouse or former spouse and domestic battery committed in the presence of a child under 16. All charges are Level 5 felonies.
Crawfordsville Police Department Patrolman Cade Mills described the events in an affidavit filed Oct. 19 with Montgomery County courts. He depicted the residence and its occupants as being in a state of disarray when he responded to a domestic altercation.
Mills stated in his report that Edwards arrived home that morning after being away for one to two days, kicked in the back door and accused the female occupant that she was cheating on him.
The woman, who is eight weeks pregnant, was also in the company of her three-year-old daughter at the time. She alleges Edwards grabbed her “by both sides of her face and lifted her to her feet” before smacking her face with an open hand in the child’s presence.
Edwards allegedly came back to the living room and pulled the woman off the couch, causing the child to fall and strike her head against a wooden coffee table.
“I felt (the girl’s) head and felt a large lump just above her hairline, above her right eye,” Mills stated in the charging information. “The lump was about as big as a quarter.”
He also observed a distinct lump on the woman’s shin consistent with being struck against a coffee table, he wrote.
Howeve, Edwards denied the accusations, saying the woman “grabbed his shirt as he was walking away.”
“He also denied kicking in the back door,” Mills wrote. “He said (the woman) is ‘an emotional wreck and she’s pregnant.’”
Edwards was arrested and booked into the Montgomery County Jail. A cash-only bond of $6,000 was set.
Edwards was charged in February 2012 with battery by means of a deadly weapon and burglary resulting in bodily injury. The burglary charge, a Class A felony at the time, was dismissed along with four counts of criminal confinement in the case.
In July 2003, Edwards was charged with battery. Earlier the same month, he was charged with aggravated battery, battery with a deadly weapon and battery resulting in serious bodily injury.
