A Marion County man is behind bars after a late-night domestic dispute turned violent—and airborne—early Sunday morning.
Deputies say Wesley Rutledge woke his pregnant girlfriend by screaming at her after rummaging through her phone. When she tried to escape to a locked bedroom where her mother and daughter were sleeping, Rutledge allegedly battered the door and later hurled a wooden dining room chair toward her, denting a refrigerator instead.
According to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, the victim grabbed a pair of scissors in fear as Rutledge continued threatening texts, warning her she “wasn’t safe here.” The commotion left the victim’s mother and daughter terrified in the next room.
Rutledge later admitted to deputies that he threw the chair—not at the victim, he claimed, but simply to “release his anger.” Deputies disagreed, arresting him for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (domestic) and hauling him to the Marion County Jail without further incident.
The chair, the fridge, and the relationship all appear to have sustained damage.
