Man accused of stabbing good Samaritan
Toolbox
By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT - Published: December 26, 2009
WILDER – A Good Samaritan who stopped to help at what he thought was a two-car accident ended up getting stabbed in the hand late Wednesday night by an irate driver who'd allegedly just rammed his own car into his wife's car on the Exit 12 off-ramp of Interstate 91, according to police.
Alexey Mamaev, 22, of Quechee ended up pleading innocent on Christmas Eve to misdemeanor counts of drunk driving – second offense, domestic assault, resisting arrest, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, simple assault, leaving the scene of an accident, and interfering with access to emergency services before he was released on pre-trial conditions and a $5,000 unsecured appearance bond.
Thomas Bleeks, 43, of Norwich told police he was heading home from his work as a bouncer at the Shenanigan's strip club in White River Junction when he chanced upon a pair of cars that were stopped on Bugbee Street at the base of the off-ramp.
"I rolled down my window to ask if they needed assistance when I heard a female voice screaming, 'Give me my keys (and) get out of my car, you're drunk!'," Bleeks wrote in a written statement given to police.
Bleeks said he was dialing the police on his phone as he walked closer and saw, "The woman was trying to grab the keys from the driver when she appeared to be pulled into the vehicle … I looked in and I saw him slapping her in the head and face. I reached in to grab him and stop him from assaulting the woman (and) he stabbed me in the back of my left hand with the keys."
Pulling his bleeding hand free, Bleeks said he tried to reach in with his right as the driver, later identified as Mamaev allegedly "then punched the woman in the head."
"I grabbed his other hand (and) he tried to stab me again with the keys but I let his arm go before he could," Bleeks continued, adding, "With his attention focused on me, the woman was able to grab the keys and exit the passenger side of the vehicle."
Hartford and Norwich police officers responded to the scene just before midnight and quickly identified the woman involved in the altercation as Jasmine Caple, Mamaev's wife.
Caple, 21, told officers that Mamaev had too much to drink and he'd "pulled over to talk because he was wasted." Caple said that after she parked in front of her husband and walked back to talk with him the altercation began.
"He flipped out, hitting and kicking me," Caple wrote in a sworn statement filed with the court. "Alexey tried to drive off with me dangling from the car. I was trying to get the second key. Alexey ran into the second car – I think he thought he could get through and wasn't thinking. I called 911 and then he attacked me again, trying to grab my phone to hang up on them."
Hartford Police Officer Eric Clifford wrote that when he and Norwich Police Officer Mike Scruggs first arrived on the scene, Mamaev had fled into the nearby woods. "We found the defendant approximately 30-to-50 feet down the northbound embankment … consuming the contents of a silver can, later identified as "Steele Reserve" (beer), at a rapid pace," Clifford wrote.
Mamaev smiled but said little beyond that he worked at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center during his appearance in Windsor District Court in downtown White River Junction on Thursday afternoon. Afterward, however, an exasperated Bleeks emerged from the courtroom benches with a heavily bandaged left hand, which he said in his statement had been X-rayed at the hospital and may require treatment for possible nerve and ligament damage.
"He can stab somebody and just walk away?" Bleeks asked Windsor County Deputy State's Attorney David Cahill who was standing at the front of the courtroom, adding, "He told me last night that he was going to kill me!"
"Today's hearing is about whether he is going to come to court in the future," Cahill replied, explaining the release conditions, which include an order that Mamaev not contact or harass Bleeks, before adding, "I intend to hold him accountable. This is just the beginning of the process, not the end."
46