A 65-year-old Nicholls woman, Lavonia Brinson, was recently charged with aggravated assault after her boyfriend was found lying in the street after she allegedly knocked him unconscious with a piece of wood.
According to a Nicholls Police Department report, on October 31, a NPD officer was dispatched to Burdell Avenue about an assault. When he arrived, he discovered a 59-year-old male lying in the street in front of Burdell Avenue in Nicholls.
At the time, the victim was unable to tell the officer what happened. However, a bystander told the officer she witnessed Brinson strike the man in the head with a log.
Jamie Merritt, Nicholls Chief of Police, was notified by the reporting officer and the witness of what had occurred. The report states that he responded to the scene and found the victim walking north on North Coffee Street, bleeding from his mouth “pretty badly” and the back of his head.
The victim reported that the “entire incident” stemmed from a woman offering to help him fix his broken phone.
The chief then went to Burdell Avenue to recover the piece of wood that Brinson allegedly used to hit the victim. The wood was discovered on a John Deere ATV that Brinson and the victim used to “get back and forth.”
According to the report, blood spots on the yellow line in the road where the victim was found lying were discovered and photographed.
One of the witnesses reported the victim was standing up when Brinson hit him with the piece of wood, then fell “straight back onto the pavement.” She stated that she tried to wake the victim up but “thought he was dead” and then called 911 before going to the police department to report what she witnessed.
Another person on the scene who claimed to have seen what occurred corroborated the first witness’s statements. The individual stated that he saw Brinson hit the victim several times and that it caused him to fall and hit his head on the pavement. He also said he observed the victim try to protect himself by holding up a bucket in front of his face, but that Brinson was still able to hit him.
Brinson was booked into the Coffee County Jail on one count of aggravated assault. She has since been released on a property bond.