Alcoa Police arrested a Maryville man Saturday after they discovered him choking his half-nude girlfriend on the bed of a local hotel room, according to police reports.
Charles W. Jenkins, 52, Cecelia Avenue, Maryville, was charged with aggravated assault in the wake of the incident. He was being held at Blount County jail on a $25,000 bond pending a June 23 hearing.
According to reports, Alcoa officers were called to a room of Royal Extended Stay, 2972 Alcoa Highway, for a welfare check. Upon walking up to Room 610, police observed the door cracked open and a clothed man, Jenkins, lying on top of a female, who was naked from the waist down.
Reports said the man got up from the bed, agitated, and that police questioned the 44-year-old Maryville woman. They observed that the woman had red marks on her throat, bruises on her cheek and jaw and tears streaming down her face.
The woman told officers she and Jenkins, her boyfriend of eight months, had an argument over her alleged infidelity. She said Jenkins threatened that she “needed to be put to sleep,” and that he had “put her to sleep” on three occasions in the past.
She said Jenkins then punched her in the face, pushed her onto the bed and began choking her, saying, “You need to die.” She said she was able to fight back just enough to get occasional breaths of air over the course of about three minutes, but that she was on the verge of passing out when police arrived.
Jenkins told police that the woman started the fight, grabbing him and pulling him back into the room after he attempted to leave. Police determined he was the aggressor and placed him under arrest.