An Umatilla man went to jail on New Year’s Day after a 17-year-old reported being strangled when he came to the aid of a woman in what he believed was a physical altercation.
Christopher Lee Durning, 39, is being held without bond in the Marion County Jail after the incident, which happened around 2 a.m. Tuesday.
The victim told a Marion County sheriff’s deputy he overheard what sounded like a physical altercation between Durning and a woman taking place in a bathroom. The victim knocked on the door several times to make Durning stop.
When Durning opened the door, he pushed the victim into another room and grabbed him by the throat. The victim said he couldn’t breathe and felt light-headed and dizzy when Durning finally let go. The deputy observed a large laceration on the victim’s neck, along with what appeared to be finger marks in the dried blood.
The female victim involved in the original altercation said she and Durning, who had been drinking, were arguing about their living situation when Durning scratched her arm. She said she partially witnessed the altercation between Durning and the juvenile victim but was unsure where Durning grabbed him.
Durning told the deputy he and the female victim were arguing in the bathroom when the juvenile victim started beating on the door so hard it broke in and fell on him. He said the juvenile punched him in the face, and as he tried to defend himself, they both fell into the juvenile victim’s bedroom and onto the bed. Durning said he left the bedroom when the juvenile victim said he was hurting him.
Durning was charged with abuse of a child without great bodily harm and battery by touching or striking. He’s due in Marion County Court on Feb. 5.