A Summerfield man is behind bars on a litany of charges after a pregnant woman claimed he bent her over a kitchen counter and struck her in the head several times.
The woman attempted to call 911 from a cell phone Tuesday morning to report a domestic battery at her home on SE 147th Street. A few minutes later, her mother called the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and said her daughter had fled the residence after allegedly being battered by 38-year-old Keith Dawayne Puryear, a sheriff’s office report states.
A sheriff’s deputy contacted the woman by phone but she was “crying hysterically” and he wasn’t able to understand what she was saying. The deputy did confirm that neither she nor anyone else at her residence were in danger, then met her at her workplace, the report states.
The woman told the deputy that she and Puryear were in a verbal altercation and while holding a 9-month-old child, he started yelling at her and bent her over a counter before striking her in the head four to five times with an open hand. The woman said she recently had taken a pregnancy test that showed a positive result and Puryear was aware of that outcome, the report says.
The woman claimed she was hit on both sides of her head and the deputy noted a dark mark near her right eye, the report says.
Puryear was arrested at the residence a short time later. While at his house, deputies smelled an odor of marijuana and alerted the Unified Drug Enforcement Strike Team (UDEST), which responded to the residence. The woman also returned home and gave UDEST agents written permission to search the house, the report says.
During the search, agents located a camouflage backpack that contained a digital scale, numerous empty Ziploc-style bags, assorted ammunition and two white pills that were later identified as Tramadol Hydrochloride 50mg – a Schedule IV narcotic available only by prescription.
Agents also located a brown box in the closet of a bedroom containing cash, .380-caliber ammunition in a drawer located near the closet, a small bag containing methamphetamine from a tin lunch box on top of the dresser, marijuana in a baby formula container under the bedside table, a grinder with marijuana residue on top of the bedside table and a green notebook containing multiple names with currency amounts written next to them, which agents believe is a ledger, the report says.
Underneath the bed’s mattress, officers located a 9mm semi-automatic Hi-Point pistol that was loaded with a round in the chamber, a pink .380-caliber semi-automatic Taurus and Puryear’s identification card. And in the living room, officers found a spent shell casing in a plastic bag and a small amount of marijuana on the entertainment center, the report says.
Officers also searched a car parked beside the house and located a 7.62 semi-automatic rifle with a round in the chamber in the trunk. They also found a tan Crown Royal bag in the center console of the vehicle containing marijuana, methamphetamine and two pills that were identified as Oxycodone Hydrochloride 5mg, which is a Schedule II narcotic available by prescription only, the report states.
A computer check of Puryear’s criminal background showed multiple felony convictions, with the most recent being on Jan. 21, 2014 for the sale of cocaine, the report says.
Puryear was transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with aggravated battery on a pregnant woman, three counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of ammunition by a convicted felon, possession of cocaine with intent to sell, possession of methamphetamine with intent to sell, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, two counts of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Puryear was being held on $81,500 bond and is due in a Marion County courtroom on April 2 at 9 a.m. to answer to the myriad of charges.
UDEST is an initiative of the North Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. It is comprised of local, state and federal law enforcement from the Ocala Police Department, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Drug Enforcement Administration and Department of Homeland Security.