Matthew Richard Sayger appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Monday and entered a guilty plea to charges stemming from a violent domestic altercation.
The 30-year-old Sayger was sentenced to 10-years in prison.
THE INCIDENT
The victims involved in the early May 2022 incident that got Sayger thrown in jail were a 59-year-old man identified as his mother’s fiancé, the 54-year-old mother, and Sayger’s four-year-old biological child.
During the altercation, the fiancé was beaten by Sayger and suffered serious injuries.
The mother and fiancé both attended Monday’s circuit court session and stood behind Sayger as he was sentenced. Prosecutor David Ethredge told the court that the victims supported Sayger’s sentence.
On the day of the incident, Sayger tried to flee the scene along Oak Valley Lane in his vehicle and Baxter County Sheriff’s deputies responding to the domestic altercation found themselves on the road facing Sayger armed with a bottle of whiskey and a golf club.
Before encountering the suspect, the deputies met the male victim, Sayger’s mother, and his child on the way to the hospital.
It was reported that the male “had obvious injuries to his face and that there was a lot of bruising and bleeding in that area.”
SAYGER RESISTS ARREST
After the deputies had talked to the trio headed to the hospital, they saw a Ford Escape traveling toward them at a high rate of speed.
The deputies stopped in the road and Sayger got out of his vehicle clutching a whiskey bottle. He was reported to have taken drinks from the bottle during the encounter.
Sayger started yelling at the deputies, then reached into his car and pulled out a golf club.
The deputies drew their weapons after Sayger said he intended to beat the deputies up, “or you are going to have to kill me.”
At one point, a deputy holstered his service weapon and took out a stun gun. Sayger is reported to have responded by going to his vehicle and putting on a long sleeve shirt and jacket, possibly indicating prior experience as a stun gun target.
Finally, Sayger began to respond to the deputies’ commands. After he was subdued, he was searched. He is reported to have had other unspecified weapons on his person.
He was taken to the Baxter County Detention Center and his initial bond was set at $75,000.
During the trip to the jail, Sayger said he was from Chicago, was in the Mafia, and that he had been trying to protect his mother. He said more than once that he wanted to kill the mother’s fiancé.
He is alleged to have told the deputy taking him to jail, “I should’ve just shot him.”
Sayger also claimed that if his child had not hidden his car keys while he was attacking his mother’s fiancé forcing him to waste time trying to locate them, he would have gotten away.
After he was deposited at the jail, Sayger is reported to have been verbally abusive to the staff.
One of the deputies went to the hospital to interview the others who were at the residence at the time of the fracas.
Sayger’s mother told the deputy they were having dinner when her son began yelling at her. Her fiancé got up from the table to try and defuse the situation. According to the probable cause affidavit, Sayger is alleged to have started hitting the man.
Initially, the four-year-old-child had been near the fight, but Sayger’s mother took the child out of the room.
Sayger’s mother told investigators that when she returned her son was sitting on her fiancé hitting him with his fists.
The male victim, Sayger’s mother and the female child were able to get away from the house, pile into a vehicle and head to Baxter Health.
The fiancé was reported to have suffered a broken nose, a damaged optical nerve and hemorrhaging behind and inside of one eye.
At the time the deputy was talking to the man, he had lost the sight in one eye and had been told it might be permanent.
The man said he remembered very little about the incident “because it all happened so fast.”
EARLIER ENCOUNTERS WITH THE LAW
Sayger also has had several brushes with the law while living in Indiana.
According to Indiana electronic court records, there are three active cases involving Sayger.
The cases were all opened in 2021-2022:
April 22, 2022, a case was filed with charges including domestic battery committed in the presence of a child less than 16 years old, violation of a no contact order and invasion of privacy.
January 4, 2022, a case was filed with charges including battery against a public safety officer, resisting arrest, strangulation and criminal trespass.
December 13, 2021, saw the filing of another case against Sayger. The charges included domestic battery committed in the presence of a child less than 16-years-old.
The three active cases are shown to have all been filed in the LaPorte Superior Court. Arrest warrants are active in each of the cases.
Several pages of other cases listed as decided or closed show up in a search of Sayger’s Indiana.
The charges in those cases include public intoxication, intimidation, disorderly conduct, possessing and drinking alcohol in a park, theft, driving under the influence with a minor in the vehicle, possession of marijuana, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and failure to have a valid Indiana fishing license.
Some of the charges were filed as felonies and others as misdemeanors.
MOTHER WANTS HELP FOR SON
During an earlier court appearance Sayger’s mother requested that his bond be lowered so the family could put him in addiction treatment.
The mother had already been successful in getting a no contact order modified allowing her to visit Sayger while he was in jail. Circuit Judge John Putman approved that modification in late October last year.
The request to lower Sayger’s bond was not successful. The state announced as being strongly opposed to adjusting the bond.
Ethredge said he was concerned about having Sayger “free in the community, given the serious nature of the charges against him.”
The mother said the incident was directly tied to her sons addiction to alcohol and reported he was intoxicated on the day of the fight.
She told the court the family was looking for a local addiction treatment facility.
According to electronic court records, they were apparently successful. Sayger listed his address in late November last year as Changes Recovery.
But he did not complete the program at Changes. He said he left because he did not like “some of the stuff going on there.” He did not elaborate.
After he left the addiction treatment facility, the company that posted his bond returned him to jail since completion of the treatment program was a condition of the bond.
The modified no contact order was lifted completely Monday to allow the mother and others in the family to visit Sayger in prison.
SAYGER’S CHARGES
Sayger’s charges stemming from the May 9, 2022, incident included battery, two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, third-degree assault on a family or household member, terroristic threatening, endangering the welfare of a minor, and resisting arrest.
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