A 33-year-old Park County man accused of terrorizing his pregnant fiancée and her two young children with a hammer during a three-day drinking binge could get up to 30 years in prison.
Michael Wayne Henry was bound over for trial in Park County Circuit Court on Wednesday on three counts of felony aggravated assault and battery.
The volatile situation came to a head Feb. 3 when Henry allegedly went after the six-months-pregnant woman and her kids, ages 7 and 4, with a hammer to stop them from leaving their rural Cody home, Park County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Tom Caudle writes in an affidavit of probable cause filed in Henry’s case.
While ranting at the woman as she was trying to leave because he continued to be intoxicated — as he also was for the two days prior — Henry smashed out the windows to her car with a hammer while she and the kids were inside it, the affidavit says.
While he made his way around the vehicle smashing the windows, the woman was trying to get her kids out of the way of flying glass, using herself as a shield, Caudle wrote.
The woman was trying to leave with the kids while Henry was sleeping, but he woke up before they could get out, the affidavit says.
“Henry followed her to the car, shoved her to the ground and took the keys out of the car,” according to the affidavit. The woman “followed him into the house attempting to get him to return the keys, but he refused.”
Uneasy about Henry’s temperament, the woman retreated to the vehicle, with the kids already inside, and locked the doors.
That’s when the situation escalated, the affidavit says.
“Henry went back into the house and then came from behind the house with a hammer, walked straight up to (the woman’s) window and began smashing the window, causing glass to fly everywhere inside the vehicle,” Caudle wrote.
He then worked his way around the car, smashing windows with the hammer. In the meantime, the woman was gathering the kids to her and covering them with her body, the affidavit says.
“Henry then moved to the front passenger side where the 7-year-old was seated and began smashing the window with the hammer as (she) pulled her to the middle with her and the other child trying to shield them,” the document adds.
Resists Arrest
By the time Caudle and other law enforcement officers arrived, Henry had retreated into his house, ignoring commands from deputies to come out of the house, according to the affidavit.
They were concerned because of a contact Caudle had the day before with a friend of Henry’s, who reported Henry was agitated and making statements about forcing officers to shoot him, the affidavit says.
The friend “called to inform me that Henry had called him, telling him he loved him and this was not his fault, and then told (the friend) his plan to attack law enforcement when they came to his house,” Caudle wrote.
Henry said he’d “take a gun from law enforcement and either shoot himself or cause law enforcement to shoot him,” the affidavit continues. “He also stated he had been best friends with Henry from age 10 and truly believed Henry meant what he was saying.”
The next day when leaving the house, Henry didn’t have a weapon and didn’t get one from them but instead vigorously resisted arrest.
“Henry refused to cooperate as we escorted him to my patrol vehicle and refused to get into the vehicle even after multiple commands,” Caudle wrote.
Even a jolt from a taser didn’t settle him down, and the deputy wrote that “it took several deputies to wrestle Henry into my patrol vehicle.”
‘Intoxicated And Very Agitated’
The arrest was the end to a prolonged ordeal for the woman and the children, the affidavit says.
It began two days before when Caudle said he responded to the home to find Henry “intoxicated and very agitated, … had punched holes in the wall of the house, punched his vehicle and punched the grill repeatedly as we were there.”
There hadn’t been a physical altercation between Henry and his fiancée by that point, and after separating them she took the kids to her parents’ house, the affidavit says.
By the next day, Henry was still angry and reported the woman had stolen his vehicle when she went to stay with her family.
“(She) had been free to use the vehicle during their relationship, until today,” the affidavit says.
The fiancée had returned earlier in the day but decided to leave again after finding Henry was still angry and intoxicated, Caudle wrote.
“He placed his hand over her face, keeping her in place and telling her she could not leave,” the affidavit says. After fighting with him to get away, the woman and kids managed to leave again.
The third day, the woman and kids returned around 6 a.m. to gather their things while Henry slept, but he woke up at some point “and began yelling at (her) and the kids again,” the affidavit says.
He was eventually arrested and booked into the Park County Detention Center and held on a $25,000 cash bond, where he remains.
If convicted, Henry faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 for each of the three aggravated assault and battery charges.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
