POLLOCKSVILLE — A Jones County man is accused of beating his girlfriend so badly she remains in a coma in a Greenville hospital.
Hank Owen Daughety, 32, of 354 Island Creek Road in Pollocksville, was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon and a felony count of inflicting serious injury with intent to kill following an Aug. 6 incident in Pollocksville. After an arrest on Wednesday, he is in the Jones County Jail under a $500,000 secured bond.
A joint investigation conducted by the Jones County Sheriff’s Office, the State Bureau of Investigation and the Maysville Police Department was started after Daughety called authorities to tell them his girlfriend had overdosed on drugs. The JCSO and an ambulance service responded to a residence at 10 a.m. on Aug. 6 on Island Creek Road in Pollocksville to find the victim.
The Free Press does not publish the names of victims of alleged domestic abuse.
Once the victim was taken to the emergency room of Carolina East Medical Center in New Bern, medical officials determined her condition was not due to an overdose as Daughety claimed. Medical staff said her injuries — which included a punctured lung and severe brain trauma — came as a result of a physical assault.
Armed with that information, JCSO investigators went back to the Island Creek Road residence where the victim was found and called in the SBI for assistance. After canvassing the area and conducting field interviews, the authorities identified Daughety as a suspect.
At 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, officers with the JCSO, SBI and MPD converged on a residence on U.S. 17 north of Pollocksville and arrested Daughety after he attempted to flee out of a back door.
According to the N.C. Department of Public Safety website, Daughety was convicted of a DWI Level 2 on July 20, 2012, for an incident that occurred on Oct. 28, 2011. He received probation for that conviction.
The victim remains in a coma in critical condition at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville following multiple surgeries. She is under law enforcement protection.
The investigation is continuing; officials ask anyone with additional information to contact them at JCSO headquarters in Trenton or the SBI’s Coastal District Office in Jacksonville.