(La Porte County, IN) - Charges are filed in connection with a man severely beaten in La Porte County with an ax handle.  Phillip Jones, 53, is charged in La Porte Circuit Court with Level 3 felony aggravated battery and level 5 felony domestic battery.

 

Terry Schultz, 52, was last reported in critical condition at Memorial Hospital in South Bend.  The beating happened Saturday in the basement of a home where both men reside at 4934 N. 325 West.

 

According to court documents, the investigation reveals the mother and nephew of the defendant responding to the sounds of an altercation between the men went downstairs to find Schultz on the floor and Jones walking around.  Both family members went back upstairs where a call was placed to 911.

 

They returned to the basement after hearing the men a second time fighting and discovered Schultz on the floor again and Jones on his feet holding an ax handle.

 

The defendant’s mother was trying to separate the men while her son using the ax handle delivered more blows to the victim.  Emergency responders found Schultz unresponsive.

 

Two days later, police said an officer attempted to question Schultz at the hospital about the case but he was having difficulty speaking. 

 

According to court documents, Schultz suffered a fracture extending across both sides of the bone in his nose and lacerations to his face.  Schultz was also diagnosed with fractures to vertebrae in the upper and lower portions of his back, a thoracic spine fracture along with fractures to multiple ribs.

 

Police said Jones told investigators he threatened Schultz earlier in the day to back off from an exchange he was having a friend.  Jones said he was later sleeping in his chair in the basement when attacked by Schultz, who he knocked to the floor with a punch, according to court documents.

 

Jones could face anywhere from a 3 to 16 year sentence on the aggravated battery charge and 1 to 6 years on the remaining court.