Crime Report, 10/29/03
By Jeff Henson

Sometimes, all heroes get for their effort is a wrench to the head.

A Huntington man who tried to help his neighbor in distress in the 1800
block of Marshall Avenue got brained with a crescent wrench, then had
to watch as the wrench-guy fled the scene.

So it's about 6:10 a.m. Saturday. A 28-year-old Huntington woman is
staying with her friend at her Marshall Avenue home. She's afraid to stay
at her own place, she tells Huntington police.

The women hear a door kicked in. The figure that appears is the
frightened woman's ex-boyfriend. He tries to break into a closed bedroom door.

Our hero hears the disturbance next door. He runs to the house, He
pushes the ex-boyfriend against a wall. The ex-boyfriend pulls out the
aforementioned crescent wrench, which he was going to use to hit his
ex-girlfriend, she says. Instead, the ex-boyfriend uses it to bash our hero
on top of the head several times.

Then --- splitsville for the ex-boyfriend's. Out the front door. He's
gone.

Our hero is left with his wounds, and our respect.

It'd be awful cool to have a neighbor like that.

Other news from the Huntington Police Department Tuesday:

----- They had their hands full at Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital
early Tuesday morning.

A broom-swinging man threatened employees and ransacked an office about
2:20 a.m. Tuesday in an apparent attempt to go to the Cabell County
Jail.

Yes, that's the logic of a man trying to whack people with a broom.

The man, Billy Joe Ellis, 24, of 408 Washington Ave., was arrested just
after midnight on a charge of public intoxication. He was taken to the
hospital's public intoxication shelter to, well, collect himself.

After he threatened employees, the police arrived. He'd made his way
outside, yelling and cursing at the employees. A female employee told
officers he hit her on the rear end with a closed fist before trying to
hit her in the face.

While in the shelter, he called a hospital operator 8 times, saying he
wanted to go to jail. He even asked, "If I keep hurting people or kill
someone, will I go to jail?"

You know it, pal.

----- A 22-year-old Proctorville man was lying on a couch in an
apartment in the 2000 block of Buffington Avenue about 3 p.m. Monday when a
man he didn't know crawled through an open window and unlocked the front
door.

Through the front door rushed several people, who beat the man. He did
not defend himself.

One of the attackers admitted to police he beat the man. He said he did
so because the man had sexually assaulted a friend of his. He said he
didn't know the dude who crawled through the window.

The man was taken by Cabell County Emergency Medical Service to Cabell
Huntington Hospital with minor injuries.

----- A 28-year-old Huntington man was arrested Monday night on two
counts of domestic assault after he threatened to kill two people in the
400 block of Washington Avenue.

A woman who has the same last name as the man arrested told police he
threatened to beat and kill her and their 4-year-son. In the police
cruiser, the man threatened officers.

Arrested was Isaac J. Ellis of 406 Washington Ave.

----- A 22-year-old Huntington man reported a man he's known for 10
years flashed a gun at him and threatened to kill him in the 2700 block of
Highlawn Avenue about 8:30 p.m. Friday.

The man said the dude came to his house in a car. He stood in the
street, pulled up his shirt and put his hand on a black handgun in the front
of his pants. He took off in the car.

The dude has been threatening the man since Oct. 21. He calls him and
says he's going to burn down his house and beat and kill him.

The man's 3 children and his sister's 3 children live in his house.
He's afraid for their safety.

----- Glass clown statues made by Pilgrim Glass and worth $3,000 were
stolen from a 48-year-old Huntington man in the 4800 block of Parkside
Place between 11 a.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Monday.

Two weeks ago, a dude visited the man and tried to buy the statues. He
wanted to sell them to a person at a local flea market.

----- Arrested: Thomas W. Reau, 51, of 1030 Seventh Ave., on a charge
of public intoxication. He was arrested about 11:25 p.m. Friday on
Norway Avenue at Sycamore Street.

On Monday, at 4:40 p.m., Reau was arrested on charges of public
intoxication, disorderly conduct and obstructing an officer. He was arrested
on Eighth Avenue at Eighth Street.

----- Arrested: John D. Blankenship, 39, of 901 Fifth Ave. Apt. 47, on
a charge of domestic battery about 8:30 p.m. Monday. He hit his wife on
top of her head with his fist.

----- Arrested: Melanie A. Hadden, 19, of 33 Put Drive, Box 4,
Proctorville, on charges of having improper registration and driving without a
driver's license. She was arrested about 3:50 a.m. Tuesday in the 1800
block of Seventh Avenue.

----- Arrested: Ronald W. Stewart, 40, of 950 Jefferson Ave., on
charges of possessing an altered registration plate, driving without
insurance and driving without a driver's license. He was arrested about 9:10
a.m. Monday on Court Street at Brandon Road.

----- Arrested: Belinda A. Fuller, 30, of 1203 Rear Oak St., on a
capias and a charge of fleeing. She was arrested about 4:35 p.m. Friday.

----- Arrested: Jason E. Taylor, 31, of 235 Sixth Ave., on charges of
public intoxication and obstructing an officer. He was arrested about 3
a.m. Friday on 10th Avenue at Eighth Street.

----- Arrested: A 16-year-old Huntington boy on a charge of breaking
and entering. He was arrested about 4:15 a.m. Saturday.

Be well.