A suspected attacker was arrested after leaving a woman with facial injuries.
Charles Edward Smith, 64, is facing a felony charge of battery as a result of the attack which took place in the wee hours Thursday, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
Smith, who weighs 200 pounds, demanded a cell phone from the woman and became verbally aggressive when she refused to turn it over. She fled toward the woodline along County Road 100 near the Sumter-Lake County line.
As the woman was running, she tripped “multiple times” and Smith caught her. He “forcibly threw her to the ground” and “started punching her face and biting her left cheek.” She tried to get away, but he attacked her again. This went on for about 15 minutes.
When deputies arrived on the scene, they found the woman had “teeth marks on her left check” which were starting to bruise. She also had “obvious swelling on the right side of her forehead, above her eyebrow.”
Smith, who has three previous battery convictions, was taken into custody and booked at Sumter County Detention Center where he was initially held without bond.