- November 17, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Bertha May Taylor, 72, had already taken out an injunction against her 25-year-old grandson the morning of May 13 when the young man walked back into his grandmother’s house and started what a Sheriff’s Office news release called “a horrific encounter,” beating her and threatening her with a kitchen knife.
Taylor and the grandson — David Jay Harris — had lived together, and Harris had his own key. Taylor was in her garage readying thing for a garage sale at about 11:40 a.m. when Harris opened the door that leads from the home’s living area into the garage.
“This startled (Taylor) because she was unaware that (Harris) came back into the residence after he was served with the injunction,” a deputy wrote in a charging affidavit.
Taylor told her grandson he wasn’t supposed to be there, but he began yelling at her for calling police on him, according to the affidavit. Taylor ran into the house through the garage door and tried to push it shut to keep him out, but couldn’t.
Then she “ran into her bedroom to get a phone and (Harris) followed her and began grabbing both of her arms and the back of her neck. (Taylor) was trying to fight (Harris) off but he continued to grab her and attempted to throw her to the ground an put her hands behind her back,” according to the affidavit.
She pushed him off briefly. He grabbed the home phone from her hands, then threw it on the ground, breaking it, according to the affidavit.
She ran from the bedroom toward the garage, but her grandson again grabbed her arm, then shut the electric garage door, “preventing her from escaping,” according to the affidavit.
Then he “grabbed a knife from the kitchen and threatened to kill her,” according to the affidavit. She ran into the garage and tried to hold the garage door shut so he couldn’t follow her, but he pushed it open and moved toward her, knife in hand, yelling.
Taylor “was able to talk him down and have him put the knife away,” according to the affidavit.
She went into the living room with him to talk about the injunction, and she complained about her left shoulder, “and exaggerated the injury in an attempt to make (Harris) feel bad so he would not hurt her anymore.” She told him she thought her arm was broken and she needed hospitalization.
She got in her car with Harris, picked up his girlfriend, Carissa Hall, who lived down the street, then dropped Harris off at a friend’s house and drove to the hospital with Hall, where she reported the attack to Sheriff’s Office deputies. Hall confirmed to deputies that Harris had been in the car with Taylor.
Doctors found that Taylor had no broken bones, but told her to follow up with a doctor about “possible torn ligaments in her left arm/shoulder area.”
Deputies searched for Harris and couldn’t find him, but when his grandmother was released from the hospital, a deputy wrote in the affidavit, “she asked us to search her home for (Harris) because she was in fear of him being inside.”
He was.
Deputies found him “hiding in a closet in a bedroom of the residence, which violated the injunction once more.”
They placed him in a patrol car at 4:36 p.m. and read him his Miranda rights, and he made a statement which is redacted in the charging affidavit, as is common with statements that are self-incriminating.
Deputies arrested Harris and charged with burglary, battery on a person over 65, aggravated assault, tampering with a witness, false imprisonment and violation of an injunction.
Harris is being held at the Flagler County jail without bond. He has had eight prior arrests dating back to November 2010 on charges including theft, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, battery, aggravated assault domestic violence, marijuana possession and carrying a concealed firearm, according to jail records.
“This act of domestic violence is difficult to comprehend, and I commend the victim for her bravery,” Sheriff James L. Manfre said in the news release. “The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office will be here to support her however we can.”
The Sheriff’s Office Victim Services Unit is available to all county citizens and “provides emotional support to victims, witnesses and their families,” according to the release.
For more information on the Victim Services Unit, including how to obtain an injunction, call 586-4801 or CLICK HERE.
