CASPER — A 41-year-old Casper man faces a potential life sentence on charges related to the Dec. 18 stabbing of his ex-girlfriend in an apartment complex hallway.
Nathanael Weston Wood is charged in Casper Circuit Court with being a habitual criminal and committing aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault and battery as well as domestic battery and use of controlled substance. He had his initial appearance on the charges Wednesday.
On Dec. 19, Casper Police Department asked the public for help locating Wood. Officers responded to the area of East 12th Street and South Walsh Drive for the report of an assault involving a knife, according to a police statement.
Court records show that Wood’s girlfriend’s roommate called police after Wood allegedly stabbed his girlfriend in the chest. The roommate reported “she was bleeding badly.” She said Wood had left the scene on foot with a duffel bag. The location of the apartment complex was redacted from the affidavit.
An affidavit states that Wood, who was on probation at the time, called his probation officer and said he was “freaking out” and that his girlfriend first came after him with a knife.
He told the probation officer that he tried to restrain her, and she got stabbed in the process. Wood told the officer he encouraged people in the apartment to call an ambulance and left.
The probation officer told Wood to go back to the apartment, turn himself in and not destroy any evidence. Wood said he would go back to the apartment, but he never did, the affidavit states.
The victim was transported to Banner Wyoming Medical Center with two lacerations on her chest. One was 5 or 6 centimeters long above her left breast and another 7 inches long and several centimeters deep in the middle of her chest, the affidavit states.
“The Banner Wyoming Medical Center doctor advised it appeared the blade struck a rib that prohibited the blade from penetrating, forcing the blade to create a slashing-type motion across (the victim’s) chest,” the affidavit states.
‘Hot Railed’ Meth
In interviews with the girlfriend both at the hospital and after her release, the affidavit states she told police she had been in a relationship with Wood and he came to her apartment on Dec. 18 in the late afternoon after being there earlier. Wood told her he had “hot railed” meth while he was at his home.
The girlfriend told police she was upset he was using drugs. She had asked to borrow a car from a male friend to see her children for the holidays, but when Wood learned about that request, he made comments to the friend, and the friend changed his mind about loaning her the car.
She then went into an apartment bedroom as Wood was in the living room, and they started texting each other and arguing about the vehicle situation. She then told Wood to leave her apartment, the affidavit states.
The girlfriend told police while she and her roommate were in the bedroom, Wood came in and wanted to know where a piece of clothing that belonged to him was. He then told her he was taking a necklace and a “Thor replica-style hammer” that belonged to her children, and she asked him not to take them.
When she followed him out of the apartment, she told police she asked for the items back and he stopped in the door that led to the stairwell, set his duffel bag down and grabbed her hair and started punching her on her head and body.
She told police she wasshoved to the ground, on her knees, as Wood yelled ‘I will f—-ing kill you.”
Wood then began dragging her by her hair down the hallway toward her apartment as her roommate ran out to meet them, she told police. When he let go of her hair, she became aware of a “burning sensation and deep pain in her chest.”
“(The victim) started seeing her chest area filling up with blood,” the affidavit states.
Her roommate helped the girlfriend back into the apartment and “Wood begged them not to tell the police he was involved,” the girlfriend told police. She said she thought he left the apartment carrying a machete and an axe in his hands.
Never Saw Weapon
She told police during the attack, she never saw the weapon used on her chest, but thought it was a machete.
The girlfriend’s roommate told police he did not see what happened after Wood and her roommate went into the hallway. She heard “yelling” and went into the hallway to check on her roommate.
The affidavit states the roommate saw Wood dragging her roommate down the hallway by her hair and rushed over as Wood let her go.
“(The roommate) observed a large gash on (the victim’s) chest and called 911 and began treating her wound,” the affidavit states. She told police Wood left the apartment building with a knife in one hand and a machete in the other.
Police found a blood trail in the hallway of the apartment complex and a search of adjacent areas outside the apartment complex revealed a machete thrown into a culvert on the south side of Dorset Street. They also found a rolled-up sock and a small axe. The sock contained a bulb-methamphetamine pipe, the affidavit states.
The affidavit states Wood answered a couple of initial phone calls by police from the victim’s phone and on one call said he needed medical attention “due to his COPD,”
‘What’s Up?’
Wood told police he did not know where he was. Police attempts to text him resulted in replies of “can’t talk now” and “What’s up?”
Police searches of the area and Wood’s apartment complex were unsuccessful locating him, the affidavit states.
Court records show Wood’s arrest history goes back to a burglary in Natrona County in 2003, another burglary in 2007, aggravated assault and battery in 2012, strangulation of a household member and felonious restraint in 2017, unlawful possession of a weapon in 2022 and drug charges in 2023.
The habitual criminal charges associated with both the aggravated kidnapping charge and aggravated assault and battery charge carry potential penalties of life in prison. The aggravated kidnapping charge is punishable by up to 20 years and a $10,000 fine, while the aggravated assault and battery charge carries penalties of up to 10 years and a $10,000 fine.
The domestic battery and use of a controlled substance charges are both misdemeanors and carry penalties of up to six months in jail and $750 fines.
Wood remains in the Natrona County jail on a $100,000 cash bond.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
