Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Domestic disturbance leads to arrests

Two men charged following Friday night melee


By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer

Christopher S. Storms, Joshua J. Sickinger

Two Blaine County men spent the weekend in jail following a domestic disturbance Friday night in a residential area south of Ketchum.

Christopher S. Storms, 30, was arrested for allegedly hitting his girlfriend and threatening her with a knife, while Joshua J. Sickinger, 30, was arrested for allegedly battering Storms.

Blaine County Sheriff's officers were called to a home along state Highway 75 just north of St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center shortly before midnight.

Sheriff's Lt. Jay Davis said Storms and his girlfriend reportedly had started arguing while making the bar rounds that evening in Ketchum and then brought the fight home to where they both lived.

Storms allegedly punched the woman in the face and pulled a knife and threatened her with that. Davis said the woman left the home and asked some neighbors for help. Sickinger then allegedly barged his way into Storms' home and struck him several times with the flat edge of a maul, a tool used for chopping wood.

Davis said Sickinger had a different version of events and reported that he pushed Storms to keep him from further battering the girlfriend.

Davis said both Storms and the girlfriend were treated for minor injuries by a Wood River Fire and Rescue ambulance crew.

Storms was formally charged Monday afternoon in Blaine County Magistrate Court with felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor domestic battery. Sickinger was arraigned on a charge of misdemeanor battery.

A preliminary hearing for Storms was scheduled for April 1, while a pretrial conference for Sickinger was scheduled for April 13. The Roark Law Firm was appointed public defender for Storms. Court records make no mention of legal counsel for Sickinger.

No-contact orders were issued to both defendants.

Both men were released later Monday from the Blaine County jail, Storms on $15,000 bond and Sickinger on $1,000 bond. Jail personnel reported that the men were kept in different cells.

Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com




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