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August
30, 2007
Attack
leaves putter-shaped bruises |
By RUSS CHOMA
Union Leader
Correspondent
GOFFSTOWN -
A 17-year-old Goffstown man appeared in court yesterday on charges he lay in wait along a remote walking trail for an acquaintance and then ambushed and beat him with a golf club so viciously that putter-shaped bruises were left on the victim's chest.
Michael Robinson, 17, of 186 Elm St. in Goffstown, was arrested Tuesday and arraigned yesterday afternoon in Goffstown District Court on two felony charges, including first-degree assault, for allegedly beating Thomas Foster and then trying to dispose of the golf club by throwing it in a river.
Police believe that sometime around 9 p.m. on Aug. 23, Robinson ambushed Foster along the Rails to Trails path off Route 114, just across from the Hillsborough County Hospital, possibly in retaliation for a fight several days before in which Robinson may have been the victim.
According to the arrest affidavit, police believe Carrie Cook, 20, and a female juvenile led Foster down the Rails to Trails path under the pretense that they were too scared to walk the path on their own. The two girls later brought Foster into the lobby of the Goffstown Police Department around 9:40 p.m.
Court documents said Cook admitted to police that she drove Foster to the site knowing Robinson was there waiting to fight with him, and that she fled the scene after the assault.
The affidavit states that Cook told police she drove Robinson into downtown Goffstown, where he ditched the golf club, and then drove back to check on Foster. Cook and another teen, Matthew Martin, 19, later found Foster walking on Mast Road in Goffstown, injured, and took him to the police station.
Several other teens at the scene of the alleged assault made an anonymous call to the police from Manchester, reporting Foster was injured.
Before the hearing yesterday, Goffstown Police prosecutor Kerry Steckowych said he believes more charges will be filed in connection with incident, and as many as five or six other people could also be charged. Steckowych said he could not say when that would happen.
In court, Steckowych showed pictures of bloody marks on Foster's head and a very clearly defined bruise on his side in the shape of a golf putter.
According to court documents, Foster was struck so hard with the putter that a small hole in the end of it left a distinctive red dot within the larger bruise.
Because it's a felony charge, Robinson couldn't enter a plea and was ordered held on $10,000 cash-only bail. Robinson also faces a second felony charge of falsifying physical evidence for allegedly throwing the golf club into the Piscataquog River. The putter was later recovered with the help of Martin, who told police he witnessed Robinson trying to get rid of the club.
Court documents said Foster suffered memory loss from being struck in the head, but Steckowych said he had no information on Foster's condition other than that he had been released from the hospital.
Steckowych told Goffstown District Court Judge Paul Lawrence that Robinson does have a juvenile record, and suggested he may have faced similar charges before.
"This is not his first appearance here relating to someone getting hit with a metal object," Steckowych said.
Before court, Steckowych said drugs and alcohol may have been involved, but were not motivations for the alleged attack.
"It's a case of teens with too much time on their hands and not enough connection with their families," he said.
In court, Steckowych suggested to Lawrence that there seemed to be a pattern of recent back and forth fighting among certain groups of teens in town.
"It doesn't seem to have to have much substance for people to get involved with some pretty nasty stuff," Steckowych said.
Robinson, who asked for a court-appointed lawyer, only spoke briefly.
"I'm getting really agitated at these allegations," he said, after Steckowych finished making his case to keep Robinson held on $10,000 cash bail.
Lawrence cut Robinson off and told him not to talk about the facts of the case until he consults with a lawyer.
Joyriding accusations
Robinson also was arraigned on several misdemeanor charges for an unrelated incident, in which Goffstown Police are accusing him of joyriding in a stolen Jeep that he and a friend allegedly trashed and abandoned in the woods.
Pleas of not guilty were entered for him on two counts of criminal trespass and one count of criminal mischief.
According to court documents in that case, an unnamed juvenile admitted to Goffstown Police that on the night of Aug. 22, he took a 1995 Jeep Cherokee that had been left with the keys in it from Hebert's Used Auto Parts on Shirley Hill Road, and had Robinson in the vehicle for a joyride.
The two ended up getting the Jeep stuck in the mud under nearby power lines, the documents allege, where they proceeded to heavily damage it while trying to get it out. The juvenile told police that he and Robinson eventually gave up and abandoned the Jeep.
Earlier in the night, Robinson accompanied the juvenile while he drove his own car across the front lawn of Goffstown Area High School, and then did a doughnut, tearing up the turf, on the lacrosse field. Several days prior, Robinson had been given a written warning to stay off the school's property and so was charged with criminal trespass.
Reproduced by the Goffstown
Residents Association.
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