Slaughter receives suspended sentence

Charles A. Slaughter Jr., 39, will serve three years of a suspended five-year sentence for felony partner or family member assault causing bodily injury.

District Judge Matthew Cuffe handed down the sentence Oct. 21 after Slaughter reached a plea deal with prosecutors. Authorities arrested Slaughter in July after he allegedly assaulted his son in Eureka.

According to court documents, Slaughter’s son alerted Eureka dispatch that his father was expected to arrive at his 6th Avenue home on July 20, 2019, despite having an active order of protection against him. In the weeks leading up to the confrontation, Slaughter’s son alleged he had received threats of violence from the older man.

Law enforcement officials responded to the property about 2:56 p.m. and began intervening in a domestic disturbance. When Sgt. Daniel Holskey of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office arrived, he saw Eureka City Officer Ian Jeffcock intercept Slaughter on his way to a vehicle parked nearby, arresting him for a previous partner or family member assault charge.

While Holskey separated two women arguing on the front lawn and Jeffcock was handling the arrest, Slaughter’s son emerged from the house with a bloody towel on his face. The younger man told authorities his father had come to the house to argue about a motorcycle. During the disagreement, the elder Slaughter punched him in the nose, breaking it, he told authorities, according to police accounts.

Slaughter’s son alleged to Jeffcock he had been punched twice and then choked during the disagreement.

First responders from Eureka Volunteer Ambulance Service treated the man’s injuries.

Slaughter gave Jeffcock a slightly varied account, according to court documents. He told officials he had pawned the title of his motorcycle to help his son with rent. The younger man got the title from the pawnshop without Slaughter’s say-so.

He admitted throwing a punch, according to court documents, but said he did so after his son pushed him.

“He lost his temper and punched [his son],” Jeffcock wrote in an affidavit. “He knows he handled the situation wrong.”

Charged with partner or family member assault third or subsequent offense, a felony, Slaughter allegedly grew unruly while in custody. Both Holskey and Jeffcock reported that Slaughter began banging his head on cinder block walls while awaiting transport to the Lincoln County Detention Center.

“By the time we got to [Slaughter] there was a blood spot on two of the walls in the cell,” Holskey wrote.

Although the officers restrained Slaughter and tended two his wounds, he continued to bang his head on the wall.

Jeffcock said that Slaughter’s behavior prompted him to request backup enroute to the detention center. In the Eureka officer’s account, Slaughter resumed banging his head against the dividing wall of the cruiser.

“I observed him fidgeting and working his restraints and assumed he was about to become more unruly,” Jeffcock wrote.

By the time they arrived, Slaughter had freed himself from a restraint belt and possibly his seat belt during the drive, according to court documents.

Slaughter entered a guilty plea as part of his agreement with the prosecution. He was represented by assistant public defender Jessica Polan.