Athens man charged with brutalizing woman with bat and golf club

By Joe Johnson

An Athens-Clarke County grand jury has indicted a man who brutally beat his victim with a bat and golf club.

Randy Lamar Mitchell, 38, was charged with two counts each of aggravated assault and aggravated battery, according to the indictment filed in Superior Court on Tuesday.

The indictment accuses him of using a golf club and baseball bat to strike Samantha Leigh Ryan during an assault that occurred on May 25th at a home on Smokey Road .

The 37-year-old victim was seriously disfigured by the assault, suffering a fractured skull and broken arm, according to the indictment.

Mitchell reportedly beat Ryan after accusing her of stealing. An unidentified person drove the badly injured woman to the BP station on Danielsville Road, where witnesses found her lying on the ground at the back of the store, bleeding from lacerations to her head and elsewhere on her body,

When police arrived they found that someone had covered Ryan with a sheet that had become blood soaked.

She was described in the police report as crying and shivering and unable to say what had happened.

While being transported to the hospital she reportedly told an EMT that “numerous objects were thrown at her by individuals that caused her injuries.”

Ryan provided details of the assault when interviewed in the emergency room, allowing police to secure warrants and arrest Mitchell later that day.

He was additionally charged with a felony probation violation stemming from being convicted of possession with intent to distribute cocaine,

Mitchell has remained in pretrial detention without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment October 14th.