DUBOIS – A DuBois man will stand trial for choking a woman.
Layne Eriq Stipe, 24, 4319 Rockton Rd., DuBois, is charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, harassment and unlawful restraint/serious bodily injury. He waived his right to a preliminary hearing during Centralized Court in Clearfield County. He remains in custody in lieu of $50,000 bail.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, the victim told police that she went to Stipe’s residence because he was threatening to harm himself. She put her child in a pack and play and went upstairs with Stipe to his bedroom. There a verbal altercation ensued between them over surgery for the child.
She told him she was not going to argue and began walking toward the door. Suddenly Stipe came toward her, grabbed her and threw her onto the bed. He got on top of her and began choking her. She said she started to scream, but he grabbed a pillow and covered her face with it.
She told him to stop because she could not breathe. He then grabbed a bed sheet and using both hands tried to shove it into her mouth. She could not breathe and she told police she thought she was going to die.
At some point, he stopped and she got up. He had her cell phone and he would not give it back. When she said she was going to leave, he would not let her leave. After about an hour, he told he finally told her she could go. She grabbed her child and left. She immediately called police.
Officers could see she had two bright red marks on the right side of her neck. She stated that the left side of her neck, closer to her throat was extremely sore. She had several red marks on the right side of her nose and underneath her right eye.
Because none of the family members or friends contacted by police were able to help them locate Stipe, Verizon was contacted to “ping” his phone. Police were then able to find him in the area of Rockton Road where he was taken into custody.
When he was interviewed, he provided a written statement admitting that he snapped and tried to suffocate the victim because he wanted her to suffer.