ST. GEORGE, Utah — A woman clad only in a white towel ran into a Utah gas station “very upset and visibly shaking,” accusing a man of violently attacking and threatening to kill her to prevent her testimony in a criminal case, authorities said.
The woman told police she escaped from a Days Inn motel across the street from the gas station in St. George on Monday, explaining she had an argument with her boyfriend at a bar, according to charging documents.
Joseph David Folland, 36, of Centerville, Utah, was charged with aggravated assault, witness tampering and false information to a police officer, KTVX reported. Because Folland is a convicted felon, he faces a third-degree felony weapons possessions charge, the television station reported.
According to Tiffany Atkin, a spokesperson for the St. George Police Department, Folland allegedly beat the woman with his fists when the couple left the One and Only Bar and returned to the motel. Folland then restrained her hands with duct tape and taped her mouth shut when she called for help, Atkins told McClatchy News.
Officers were called to a Maverik gas station in St. George after receiving a report of a severely battered woman asking clerks for help, KTVX reported.
“She told me that she was on the ground and Joseph pulled out a knife with a long blade," an officer wrote in a police report. “She told me that Joseph held the knife to her throat and told her he was going to kill her.”
The woman told police that Folland’s motive to harm her stemmed from her expected testimony next week in Provo, where he faces 20 years in prison on charges of kidnapping and assault, KTVX reported.
“She told me that he yelled, ‘I’m gonna kill you so you can’t testify next week,’” police stated in the report.
The woman also claimed that Folland attempted to drown her in the motel room’s bathtub, KTVX reported. She told police she grabbed a towel and ran from the bathroom, the television station.
Folland fled the scene but was arrested by police on Wednesday. He is being held without bail in the Washington County Jail.
Cox Media Group
