CRESTVIEW —Richard Josiah Hanchett, 24, of Crestview, has been charged with felony battery after a 51-year old man was hospitalized with extensive head injuries following a severe beating May 17.
The victim, Kenneth Lamar Fuller, no known address, was airlifted to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. Okaloosa deputies responding to a disturbance call on Soles Lane in Crestview found him. Fuller had multiple facial fractures and was unable to speak.
According to the sheriff's office arrest report, Hanchett told deputies that he was at his girlfriend’s home and walked outside, spotting a man later identified as Fuller looking in the bedroom window. Fuller allegedly fled on his bicycle and was chased by Hanchett, who eventually knocked him off it. Hanchett told deputies Fuller began fighting to get away and he was forced to use physical force, beating and kicking Fuller, to keep him there.
Fuller suffered sinus and orbital fractures, a skull fracture, multiple jaw fractures and a dislocated shoulder. At last word he was in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit in serious but stable condition.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview man charged with felony battery as victim recovers from severe beating