A man accused of hitting his girlfriend in the head with a rock, pushing her out of a moving vehicle, and attempting to stab her appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Monday.
Thirty-eight-year-old Robert Finch, Jr., pled not guilty to charges of first and second-degree battery.
A request was made to lower Finch’s $250,000 bond, but Circuit Judge John Putman said no.
According to the probable cause affidavit, a woman described as Finch’s girlfriend took food to him at his work place in the Midway area shortly before 4 p.m., March 30.
The girlfriend told investigators that Finch started an argument, accusing her of cheating on him.
Finch was reported to be on a break from his job, which he had held for less than two days, at the time of the incident.
The victim says she and Finch got into his pickup truck and as they were driving on a dirt road, she told investigators Finch attempted to stab her.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the victim called 911. On the call, the victim is heard saying, “don’t kill me.”
Dispatchers at the 911 Center were able to ping the phone and determined it was located on a dirt road behind the industrial park area at Midway.
There are no homes along the road, according to investigative reports.
The woman said she opened the truck door in an attempt to keep from being stabbed.
The truck was still moving and Finch is alleged to have grabbed the woman’s arm, snatched her phone away and then pushed her out of the vehicle.
Finch also fell out of the truck. He is alleged to have gotten on top of the victim and hit her in the head with a rock.
She said Finch had raised the rock and she believed he was going to hit her again and possibly kill her.
The victim told investigators that Finch had been choking her throughout most of the incident.
Police located the victim in a room at the Executive Inn. She had put the address on documents related to a recent incarceration of her own, according to the probable cause affidavit.
The woman said she and Finch had no permanent residence and either stayed in motels or slept in the truck.
The victim said Finch agreed to take her to the hospital, but went to the Executive Inn instead. She said during the trip, Finch told her they had to get married. Investigators speculated that Finch might have been thinking that if they were married, the victim might not be able to testify against him.
A call was also made from a friend of the victim at the motel requesting officers and an ambulance, saying a woman had been injured by Finch.
When they contacted the victim, officers noted that the victim had “an obvious injury to her head” and felt her ribs might be broken.
She was taken by ambulance to Baxter Regional Medical Center where she was treated for a contusion on her forehead and a laceration requiring stitches.
After treatment, the woman was released.
Police began looking for the truck Finch was believed to be driving. They located it in front of the home of one of his relatives.
When he was interviewed at the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office, Finch basically denied an altercation of any kind had taken place. He is alleged to have denied ownership of the truck saying “there were a lot of trucks like his in town.”
He also claimed the victim had been at the home of a relative of his for the entire day.
Finch was reported to have admitted the truck was his when investigators confronted him about insurance papers in his name found in the vehicle.
However, that is as far as he would go and he refused to confirm that any violence involving the victim had occurred.
Finch was initially booked into the Baxter County Detention Center Mar. 31 charged with first-degree criminal attempt to commit murder.
After evidence was reviewed, Finch’s charges were reduced to domestic battering in the first and second degree.
He remains in jail, with bond set at $250,000
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