A Gillette woman was screaming, clutching her leg and suffering seizure-like convulsions in the middle of a parking lot early Friday morning after police say her ex-boyfriend deliberately drove his pickup into her, ran over her knee and sped away.
By the time officers caught up with Kristopher Paxton a short time later, police say he insisted he hadn't hit her.
Then detectives showed him surveillance video.
Paxton watched the video twice before admitting to investigators the collision "could have been a moment of black-out rage," according to an affidavit of probable caused filed in his case.
Later, when detectives asked why he accelerated toward the woman, he offered another explanation.
"I think it may have been just blind aggression," he told investigators, according to the affidavit.
Bar Fight
The confrontation began hours earlier at Gillette's Fireside Bar, the affidavit says.
Police say Paxton and the victim had dated for about a year but were no longer together.
That night, another man drove the woman home from the bar after she asked for a ride, according to the affidavit. Not long after arriving at her apartment, she heard pounding on her doors and windows.
The affidavit says Paxton had shown up demanding his belongings.
Witnesses told police the former couple shouted profanities at one another outside the apartment while the woman repeatedly told Paxton to leave.
At one point, investigators say, Paxton climbed back into his truck.
Standing in front of the vehicle, the woman refused to move.
According to the affidavit, she told police Paxton warned, "If you don't f***ing move, I'll run your ass over."
Witnesses say he first backed up, turned the wheels so the truck pointed directly toward her, then accelerated.
The pickup's front bumper struck the woman in the torso. She fell to the pavement, and the truck's front left tire rolled over her right knee before Paxton drove away, wrote investigators wrote.
A witness immediately called 911.
Video
When officers arrived, they found the woman on the ground screaming.
"My leg, my right leg," she cried repeatedly, according to the affidavit.
Police wrote that she writhed in pain, sobbed uncontrollably and began displaying seizure-like convulsions before she was transported by ambulance to a hospital.
Investigators later obtained surveillance footage from a nearby apartment.
The affidavit says the video captured nearly the entire confrontation.
It shows Paxton arriving at the complex, arguing outside, reversing his truck, accelerating into the woman, knocking her to the ground, reversing again and driving away.
Deputies located Paxton and his blue 2007 GMC Sierra a short time later. Officers noted the smell of alcohol on him, along with bloodshot, watery eyes.
He admitted drinking fewer than two alcoholic beverages that evening and agreed to perform standardized field-sobriety tests. Police wrote they did not develop probable cause to arrest him for driving under the influence.
Admissions
During questioning, detectives asked Paxton whether he had hit the woman with his truck.
"Not to the best of my knowledge," he replied.
After investigators pressed him again, Paxton changed his answer.
"I'm not saying I didn't," he told them.
Detectives then played approximately 39 seconds of surveillance video twice.
Even after watching the footage, police say Paxton claimed he had no memory of the collision.
Based on witness interviews, surveillance footage and the victim's injuries, investigators concluded Paxton intentionally used his pickup as a deadly weapon.
He was arrested without incident and booked into the Campbell County Detention Center.
Paxton is charged with aggravated assault and battery, and misdemeanor leaving the scene of an accident resulting in injury. If convicted of the felony aggravated assault charge, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
A judge set his bond at $100,000 cash or surety.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
