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 last Wednesday.
Thirty-eight-year-old Robert Finch, Jr., was in court to determine if a plea agreement could be reached in his case.
Deputy Public Defender James Wallace told the court late in the day that no agreement had been reached and Circuit Judge John Putman said Finch’s case would be scheduled for the court’s next trial date.
Finch is charged with first-degree battery and second-degree battery.
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 have been 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 woman is heard saying, “don’t kill me.”
Dispatchers at the 9-1-1 Center were able to ping the phone and determined it was located on a dirt road behind the industrial park 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.
Finch ceased attacking the woman and was able to get his truck out of a ditch it had run into after both occupants bailed out.
Finch is reported to have eventually agreed to take the victim to Baxter Health for treatment, but then she asked to be driven to the Executive Inn.
On the drive, the victim said Finch threatened to kill her again and she jumped out of the truck at the corner of Coley Drive and North College Street.
She told officers she walked to the Executive Inn.
Police located the victim in a room at the motel. 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 that 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 would not have to testify against him.
After the victim got back to the motel, a friend of her’s made a call requesting officers and an ambulance. During the call, she said Finch had injured a woman.
When they contacted the victim at the motel, officers noted that she had “an obvious injury to her head” and felt her ribs might be broken.
She was taken by ambulance from the Executive Inn to Baxter Health 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 reported to be driving and eventually located it in front of the home of one of his relatives.
When he was interviewed at the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office, Finch denied any involvement in the incident. He is alleged to have initially denied ownership of the truck saying “there are a lot of trucks like this 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 changed his story and admitted the truck belonged to him when investigators confronted him with insurance papers in his name found in the vehicle.
However, he would go no further and 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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