Tacoma woman charged with critically injuring ex-boyfriend in baseball bat attack
A woman who critically injured her ex-boyfriend with a baseball bat at their Tacoma home said he first threatened to kill her and tried to light her on fire.
Jaquelynn Fair, 34, was charged Friday with first-degree assault.
She pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on $50,000 bail.
Her 34-year-old ex-boyfriend has been in critical condition since the May 18 attack.
He suffered multiple skull fractures and lacerations, a severely damaged ear canal, a damaged eye socket and bleeding in the brain, court records say.
If the man survives, doctors said, he will suffer from a traumatic brain injury and be deaf in one ear.
Charging papers give this account:
Police were called to a home in the 3700 block of Yakima Avenue about 5:40 p.m. Monday and found the victim unconscious and lying in a pool of blood on the living room floor.
He was rushed to St. Joseph Medical Center and has not regained consciousness.
Fair was found in the front yard hysterically crying and screaming, “I didn’t mean to kill him,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
Police noted that both Fair and the victim had been drinking that night.
The couple’s two young sons and Fair’s 14-year-old son were home at the time of the assault.
The oldest boy told detectives the victim “has a history of getting drunk and causing issues with Fair,” records say.
He claimed the victim was so drunk he walked into the middle of the street and exposed himself, then came inside and began arguing with Fair.
After allegedly calling Fair vulgar names and threatening to kill her, Fair asked her son to go upstairs with his brothers.
The boy came back downstairs after hearing “loud noises” and saw his mother hitting the victim with a baseball bat, records say.
Fair told police her ex had been yelling at her all day, threatened to kill her and poured witch hazel on her shirt and tried to set her on fire.
After he allegedly shoved her twice, Fair said she picked up a baseball bat and “hit him and hit him and hit him and hit him and hit him until he stopped,” records say.
There appears to be a history of domestic disturbances between the two.
Fair was granted a protection order against her ex-boyfriend in July, claiming “constant vulgar verbal abuse,” according to court documents.
The protection order was later terminated.
The victim’s loved ones said Fair is the abusive one and her ex-boyfriend tolerated it because he didn’t want to get his sons’ mother in trouble.
This story was originally published May 22, 2020 at 12:58 PM.
