Robert Finch (Photo courtesy of Baxter County Sheriff’s Office)
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., entered a guilty plea to charges against him and was sentenced to three years in prison.
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 again, and she believed he was going to hit her once more 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 had fallen 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 of the motel on documents related to a recent incarceration of her own, according to the probable cause affidavit.
The woman said the couple 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 made a call requesting officers and an ambulance. During the call, she said Finch had injured a woman.
When police 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 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. They located it in front of the home of one of his relatives.
When he was interviewed at the Baxter County Sheriffs Office, Finch denied any involvement in the incident, even denying ownership of the truck. He told investigators, “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 did admit the truck belonged to him when investigators confronted him with insurance papers made out 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.
Even at the conclusion of his sentencing Monday, Finch could be heard muttering about “fake blood all over her” and seemed to suggest the person shown in investigative photos was not the victim in his case.
Circuit Judge John Putman told Finch he had a right to withdraw his guilty plea and take his case to trial, but Finch declined.
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 battery.
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