An Athens man recently released from a state psychiatric hospital might now face 2-year-old charges that he brutally assaulted a woman while holding her captive.
During a bench trial earlier this year, a Clarke County Superior Court judge deemed John Howard Newton Jr., 52, incompetent to stand trial. Law enforcement officials then took Newton to the East Central Regional Hospital in Augusta, but brought him back to Athens last week.
On Sept. 6, 2013, Athens-Clarke County police said they arrived at an East Broad Street home in response to a complaint that Newton was holding a woman captive.
Upon their arrival, police said Newton exited the home, closed the door behind him and claimed no problem existed. But when the officers explained to Newton what brought them to the home, Newton reportedly knocked on the door and yelled for the person inside to open it.
Police said a severely beaten 51-year-old woman responded to Newton’s demand.
The woman reportedly went on to say that Newton held her at the residence against her will for a week. She told police she tried to call 911 at one point, but Newton took the phone from her and broke it.
The woman was taken by ambulance to Athens Regional Medical Center for treatment.
During the woman’s captivity, Newton allegedly beat her in the head and body with a broom and a portion of a vacuum cleaner, according to an indictment filed in Clarke County Superior Court. As a result of the beatings, the woman lost a tooth and two of her vertebrae were “seriously disfigured,” noted the indictment. She reportedly also suffered abrasions on her buttocks from Newton dragger her across concrete.
The indictment charges Newton with aggravated assault, aggravated battery, false imprisonment, battery, aggravated stalking, criminal trespass and hindering an emergency telephone call.
The stalking charge stemmed from him allegedly making contact with the woman “for the purpose of harassing and intimidating (the victim), in violation of a condition of pretrial release,” following a June 2013 arrest, noted court documents. That arrest stemmed from an alleged assault on the same woman, for which police charged Newton under the state Family Violence Act with simple battery, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass/damage to property.
At the time of his arrest, Newton already was a career criminal who had served five different state prison sentences, the earliest beginning in 1986.
It was in the aftermath of Newton’s most recent arrest and indictment that his attorney from the Western Judicial Circuit Public Defender Office requested a mental health evaluation. Judge H. Patrick Haggard granted the request and ordered Newton to undergo the evaluation at the Augusta psychiatric hospital. Haggard presided over a March bench trial in which he was presented with findings from the evaluation. Haggard then ordered the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to provide Newton with the necessary course of in-patient treatment.
Newton was returned Wednesday from the hospital to the Clarke County Jail. A hearing on the status of his case is scheduled for Dec. 7.
Anyone who is in an abusive relationship can seek advice and services by calling Project Safe’s 24-hour hotline at (706) 543-3331, or by visiting http://www.project-safe.org/.
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