A Spruce Creek South man found himself behind bars Sunday night after a nasty battle with a woman that erupted on the way home from church.
The woman told Marion County sheriff’s deputies that 79-year-old Wayne Edward Stewart started yelling at her and when they arrived at their home, he “grabbed her walker from the vehicle and shoved it at her in an aggressive manner,” a sheriff’s office report states.
The woman claimed Stewart threw a drink of tea in her face and when they got inside their residence, he continued to yell at her and “got in her face.” She said she told him to “back away and not put his hands on her” but he then pushed her into a chair in the living room, the report says.
The woman said she asked him for the keys to their vehicle and he “threw them at her in an aggressive manner.” She said Stewart continued to be “verbally aggressive” and told her, “Why don’t you go off somewhere and kill yourself? I just want you to die,” the report says, adding that she is “scared for her life” because things between them have been physical in the past and have continued to escalate.
Stewart said he and the woman were arguing and he admitted throwing the drink on her. He said they continued to argue once they were inside their home and he did “get in her face” and point his finger at her while she was sitting in a chair in the living room. He claimed he “never put his hands on her” but admitted they “argue a lot and it has been physical in the past,” the report says.
After being read his rights, Stewart said he and the woman “argue every day” and he does have a temper. He first said he didn’t throw the drink in the woman’s face, then admitted “it may have been in her direction and gotten on her,” the report says.
Stewart said the verbal confrontation between the two continued but he again denied putting his hands on the woman. When asked about throwing the vehicle’s keys at her, he said at he first he only handed them to her but then said he may have “tossed” them at her, the report says.
Stewart was placed under arrest and transported to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with battery on a person 65 years of age or older. He was being held on no bond and his next court date hasn’t yet been set, jail records show.
