BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Telegraph Staff Writer
STARKE—A Starke man was sentenced to a year in jail and five years’ probation after pleading to six felonies and misdemeanors, including one charge for attacking a garbage man on West Madison Street last October.
Dejor Jaerial Hill, 33, pleaded to the Oct. 17, 2022, offense of aggravated battery. He also pleaded to the Sept. 14, 2022, offense of felony domestic battery; the June 26, 2022, offenses of burglary, criminal mischief with property damage and domestic battery; and the Dec. 5, 2022, misdemeanor of violating a domestic violence injunction.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, a refuse collector was emptying cans along Edwards Road near the Starke Police Department during the morning of Oct. 17, 2022, when the drivers of two separate cars drove up to the worker and shouted threats.
When the garbage truck reached the area of the Pine Forest Apartments on West Madison Street, a car blocked the advance of the truck, and three males exited the vehicle and attacked the victim.
The driver of the garbage truck broke up the fight and drove the victim to the hospital. The victim identified Hill as one of the assailants.
On June 26, 2022, a woman told Bradford Deputy Sheriff Lakiesha Lewis that Hill broke her car window, spat on her and threatened to kill her in the middle of a Lincoln City street.
On Sept. 14, 2022, Officer Johnathon Guinn wrote in a sworn complaint that a woman told him she went to Hill’s home to take a child to school because the defendant failed to do so.
Guinn wrote that while the child was getting dressed, Hill pushed the woman onto a couch, and when she got up to leave, he grabbed her around the throat and choked her.
“Dejor then slapped (the victim) on the left side of her face,” reported Guinn. “(The child) grabbed a broom and began to strike Dejor to stop the attack on (the victim).”
The woman and student then left for school.
On Dec. 5, 2022, Starke Police Officer David Clancy reported that after sending a woman a text that read: “I’m coming over,” Hill knocked on her front door. The woman, who had a protective order prohibiting the defendant from going near her home, called police.
