By Joe Johnson
A Winterville man was arrested over the weekend for allegedly assaulting a woman who he held captive in her Athens apartment, Athens-Clarke County police said. The 20-year-old victim and the suspect had a child together, and two weeks earlier the victim reported that Juwan Netarius Davis, 23, had stolen her house keys, which he used to enter her home uninvited.
At about 1 p.m. Sunday officers were dispatched to the Columbia Brookside housing complex off Hawthorne Avenue on a report of a domestic dispute involving a knife inside one of the apartments, police said.
He victim told police that upon returning home she went into the bathroom where Davis emerged from a closet, pulled the victim inside and began choking her, according to a police incident report.
After getting out of the closet, the victim said she went into the living room when a neighbor who heard a commotion knocked on the door and asked the victim if she was alright, the report stated.
The victim stated that Davis grabbed her hair to prevent her from answering the door and he allegedly made the victim tell the neighbor that everything was fine, according to police.
Davis then allegedly [pulled the victim back into the closet where he again choked her and threatened to kill her, police said.
When struggling to get away, the victim’s hand was cut by a knife that Davis allegedly was holding. After escaping from the closet a second time, the victim said that Davis took her phone and threw it before exiting through a side door.
Warrants were subsequently issued that charged Davis with kidnapping, false imprisonment, family violence battery, first-degree burglary and criminal trespass/damage to property. He was booked into the Clarke County Jail Tuesday afternoon and on Thursday he remained there without bail being set.