By Danielle Silva
A Woodland man will face a jury trial after allegedly assaulting his neighbor with a hatchet after a multi-day text conversation.
Kevin Albert Bailey will be brought to trial regarding a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon. On May 11, 2019, the defendant allegedly went to his neighbor’s garage after a text conversation which had lasted a few hours, over a few days. A physical altercation ensued, where the neighbor allegedly received a wound in his side.
The neighbor testified first. He claimed he heard a rumor from another neighbor that the defendant had gotten drunk at a party and run down the street naked.
The witness stated he contacted Mr. Bailey via text conversation and asked if that situation had occurred. The defendant denied the incident but the conversation continued. The witness stated that the defendant eventually texted him to come to his house, take pictures of him naked and send it to his friends in response to the conversation. This happened a few days into the text conversation.
The last text message the neighbor claimed Mr. Bailey sent during the conversation was, “What’s up? Are you looking for a good ass-kicking?”
He had allegedly sent this message five to ten minutes before the incident. Sometime between 10:00 pm and 10:30 pm, the witness was putting together a bench in his garage with his son. Several bangs came from his thin-metal garage door, and the son yelled at the witness to check it out.
The witness stepped outside the garage door but failed to see anything. He noticed the defendant’s garage door, which faced his, to be open but did not see the defendant. The witness closed the garage door to examine the dents then opened it again to step inside.
Three steps in, the witness allegedly saw the defendant come toward him from around the corner of the garage with a hatchet, saying he was going to kill him.
The witness told the defendant to go home with the hatchet, but the defendant kept repeating, “I’m going to kill you” four or five times as he walked toward the neighbor.
“‘If I had a gun, I’d be shooting you,’” the witness also quoted the defendant saying.
The defendant allegedly lunged and swung the hatchet from over his head to shoulder level, the neighbor being missed the first two times. Around that time, the neighbor’s son had opened the garage door and the witness went back to Mr. Bailey to hold him off by grabbing the hand holding the hatchet.
The third time, the witness claimed the hatchet allegedly “fell down” and hit his back. He said he wrestled the defendant down and got ahold of the hatchet, throwing it into the garage and telling his son to take the hatchet away. The son added he would be calling 911.
The witness allegedly held the defendant down, including hitting the defendant’s head to the ground. Another individual came to the witness, telling him to get off of the defendant. Officers eventually arrived at the scene, where he gave a statement. One officer noted the gash in his clothes and the witness discovered he had received an injury on his right lower back, above the area of his kidney.
A second witness, a man who lived across the street from the first witness and defendant, testified next. He stated a banging in the street caught his attention and he looked outside the kitchen window. As he did so, he saw the garage doors open and saw Mr. Bailey with a hatchet going from one garage to the neighbor’s garage.
As he saw the defendant, the second witness called the police and did not engage. He observed the altercation, noting how the defendant had swung three times and the incident occurred over the span of 15 minutes.
The last witness of the preliminary hearing was a Woodland Police officer. He stated he was working the graveyard shift when he was dispatched to an altercation. The officer noted taking testimony from the first witness and had observed a “ragged cut, smooth oval-shaped slice” in his shirt.
The witness didn’t realize the tear was a wound but seemed to know where it came from afterward, claiming he believed the defendant had missed.
The officer described the wound as six to eight inches long with the front side deeper than the backside. The wound was red in color but not flowing blood. The injury was located on the rib cage or side, but the officer did not remember which side.
The officer also noted there were quarter-sized blood droplets on the driveway that were swabbed up, but he was unsure where they came from.
The court found there was enough evidence to bring the defendant to trial. Arraignment is set for Feb. 4, 2020.
