This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A 69-year-old Bluffdale man is facing charges stemming from an incident in which he is accused of hitting a man in the head with a baseball bat.
Charging documents filed in 3rd District Court on Wednesday state that the alleged attack occurred on July 3 when a man saw an advertisement on a trailer attached to a vehicle parked at 2240 W. 15000 South in Bluffdale.
The man, for reasons that are unclear, wanted a picture of the advertisement, so he pulled out a camcorder and began to film it. That's when his sexagenarian assailant allegedly emerged, bat in hand, from the parked vehicle.
According to a probable cause statement by Bluffdale police Detective S. Taylor, the man began threatening the victim with the baseball bat and accosting him with "foul and abusive language." The victim tried to retreat down the street to where he had parked his vehicle, but there was no escape.
The attacker swung, but the victim dodged it. The attacker then tackled the victim to the ground and clubbed him in the back of the head. After beating the victim repeatedly, the batsman grabbed the victim's camcorder, valued at $1,500, and destroyed it, Taylor stated.
When Taylor arrived at the scene, he found the victim bleeding profusely from a 3-inch wound on the back of his head. He had also suffered a large contusion to his forearm and several scrapes and bruises across his body, according to Taylor's probable cause statement.
An interrogating detective later testified that after being arrested and read his rights, the 69-year-old man admitted to grabbing the victim's camcorder and hitting him in the back of the head with a baseball bat, according to the probable cause statement.
The man was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with one count of aggravated assault and another count of criminal mischief, both third-degree felonies.
Twitter: @Harry_Stevens