An 18-year-old Vanguard High School student accused of assaulting a 67-year-old man yelled, “I should have beat the (expletive deleted) out of you,” to the victim as he was being taken into custody on Wednesday.
Jo’ell Darrell Fincher, who lives on NE 29th Street in Ocala, called the Marion County Sheriff’s Office after the incident and told the responding deputy that law enforcement had been at the home earlier in the day and after officers left, he threw a pair of the victim’s shoes and other articles of clothing over the back fence into the woods.
Fincher said he told the victim he would retrieve the items because he felt bad. He said the victim was on a ladder and jumped off, grabbed a bed rail and tried to hit him with it.
Fincher said he pushed the victim, went inside and called 911.
The victim said after Fincher threw his items over the fence, he put a ladder against the back of the fence and started climbing on an old bed frame on the front side. He said Fincher pulled the bed frame out from under him and he fell to the ground. When the victim got up, Fincher punched him on the left side of his head and left the scene, a sheriff’s office report states.
The deputy observed an abrasion on the victim’s upper right arm and a small bruise on the left side of his head. Fincher said the victim hit him with the bed rail on his left arm but the deputy observed no physical injuries on him.
Fincher, a senior at Vanguard who is listed at 6-foot-1 and 330 pounds, was charged with domestic battery on a person 65 years of age or older. He’s being held on $2,500 bond in the Marion County Jail and is scheduled to appear in Marion County Court on March 12.