Misdemeanor case in Cape escalates into several felonies

What started as a misdemeanor assault case ended in a bevy of charges, including felonies, against Donald Ray Stanford, 48, of Cape Girardeau.

Stanford is charged with felony elder abuse, felony armed criminal action, misdemeanor domestic assault, felony second-degree assault of a cable worker and three counts of misdemeanor assault on emergency personnel.

"I don't think that was what our officers anticipated," Cape Girardeau Police Department public information officer Adam Glueck said.

A call from a Charter Communications employee working at 3021 Mimosa St. prompted the investigation, Glueck said. According to a probable-cause statement from officer Zach Farley, Stanford threatened to shoot the cable worker, blowing his brains all over a trailer where the worker was parked nearby.

Stanford then struck the man one time in the back of the head with an open hand, Farley wrote.

Police contacted Stanford in his nearby apartment and talked to his mother, Glueck said. The mother, 69, showed a horizontal laceration on her right inner wrist where Stanford made a cut with a 4-inch blade, Farley wrote in the statement.

Stanford then kept his mother from leaving the residence by pulling her hair and striking her in the back of the head before she could open the door, then making her remove her clothing and lie on the couch, Farley reported.

Officers handcuffed Stanford and placed him in a patrol vehicle, where he kicked out a window and injured his ankle on the broken glass, Glueck said.

"It's happened before, but not often," Glueck said of a suspect breaking a patrol-car window.

Because of his injuries, Stanford needed treatment from emergency personnel. While he was being taken to the emergency room at Southeast Hospital, he started kicking one of the emergency medical technicians, patrolman Brendon Whitlock wrote in a probable-cause statement

"While Stanford continued to thrash, he continued to state, 'I'll kill all (of) you,'" Whitlock wrote.

Upon arrival at the hospital, Stanford assaulted three more medical workers as they attempted to restrain him, according to the report.

Stanford's bond was set at $5,000 cash only.

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address: 3021 Mimosa St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.