No Bond for Cracker Barrel Restaurant Attacker

Tashawnea Hill, Army reservist who was attacked and beaten by Troy Dale West in September at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant just outside Atlanta (Army Times)

Just a short update on this cracka, Troy Dale West, 47, who attacked and beat up a black woman Army reservist in front of her daughter because he objected to her warning about hurting the girl. The judge in the case believes that she needs more time to ascertain whether Troy West should be released on bail.

Prosecutors argued Troy Dale West, Jr. is a danger to the community and a flight risk. West has been held in the Clayton County jail sine September 23 when a grand jury indicted him on felony charges including aggravated assault, false imprisonment, first degree cruelty to children, battery and disorderly conduct.

“You don’t get to beat a woman down, kick her like she’s a dog in front of her child and call her all that stuff,” said Assistant District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson in court Tuesday.

Lawson argues West beat and kicked Tashawnea Hill as she left the restaurant. Hill’s daughter watched as West attacked her mother while shouting racial obscenities. Prosecutors say West became angry when Hill said he almost hit her child while leaving the Cracker Barrel.

Of course, Troy West’s attorney still maintains that Tasha Hill spat at West in a prelude to his beating her down in “self-defense.”

West’s attorney, Tony Axam objects to the claims made against his client. Axam said Hill threatened West and spit on him. That he says, prompted the attack.

“It is regrettable,” said Axam to the judge. “There should have not been a threat, should not have been spitting and probably on hindsight, there should not have been a striking.”

Yeah, but as I have said before, spitting at someone is a weapon used by another to show deep-seated, ongoing anger and rage, a rage that can flare out at any moment. I don’t think that’s a modus operandi that fits Tashawnea Hill, but it certainly does fit Troy West to a tee. The guy has a history of violence against individuals. Nothing in that woman’s record, even in the military, has pointed to such behavior. And being in the military can definitely smoke that kind of attitude out.

In 1998, West was charged with simple battery and terroristic threats after he attacked a cashier at a K-Mart in Tifton, said Dennis Baker, chief administrator for the district attorney.

According to Baker, West created phony receipts showing he had purchased Matchbox cars at other K-Marts for 59 cents. He argued with the cashier that the price of the cars should be lowered.

When the cashier denied the request, West got into a dispute with him, Baker told the judge.

“The defendant pushed him [the cashier] against a telephone booth and said he would kill him,” Baker said.

The cashier called the police and West fled, Baker said. Police arrested West at a nearby Waffle House, where he was hiding in the bathroom with a loaded pistol, according to Baker.

The case was later dismissed after the records could not be located.

And they allowed this birdbrain back on the street again, knowing what he was? He also ran from the authorities in the previous case and had to be apprehended. I don’t think he’s going to stick around for this one, either.

Tony Axam is pleading that West should be home caring for his wife, Sharon, who was injured in a car accident years ago. Sharon West was present in the courtroom along with their minister and a few relatives and friends who testified on his behalf. She later said, “I need him home. I can’t drive. It’s hard for me to get out. I’m missing doctors’ appointments and church.”

I think West’s kind of care doesn’t straighten him out, but just feeds the frustration and anger. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be in the state he is in now. We wouldn’t have heard about him at all. I don’t think that it’s out of love that he took care of his wife. It was just one more drawback, one more responsibility. I can well believe that he’s a flight risk.

It’s not that I don’t feel sorry for Mrs. West, but she has to find someone else to care for her. The idiot she’s married to needs to be in jail so that he doesn’t hurt anyone else. Including her.

~ by blksista on October 27, 2009.