A 43-year-old North Whidbey resident is accused of bashing a man in the head with a baseball bat and breaking his skull on Jan. 30, according to court documents.
Jeremy B. Steinsiek appeared in Island County Superior Court Feb. 1. The judge found probable cause existed to believe he may have committed the crimes of assault in the first degree and malicious mischief in the second degree.
The judge ordered Steinsiek held in lieu of a $20,000 bail bond.
A deputy with the Island County Sheriff’s Office was called to the scene of a domestic dispute in the area of West Trowel Road.
Steinsiek, the victim and a witness each told different versions of the incident.
The witness said that she had dated Steinsiek and the victim in the past but was “no longer going to be with either,” the deputy’s report states. She said she was at Steinsiek’s home when the victim arrived uninvited in his car.
The woman reported that Steinsiek grabbed a baseball bat, struck the car and then hit the man on the head, knocking him down, the deputy’s report states. The woman said she stopped Steinsiek from hitting the man again. The victim got into his car and drove away, with Steinsiek chasing him down the driveway.
The man drove to an Oak Harbor home and the resident called 911 to report the injured man. The victim was sitting in the car and bleeding from the head when the deputies arrived. The car’s rear window, windshield, passenger window and driver’s side window were all smashed, the deputy’s noted.
The man told deputies that he went to Steinsiek’s home to pick up the woman, who seemed like she was in trouble, when he was attacked by Steinsiek unprovoked, the report states.
The victim was transported to a hospital in Skagit County and later transferred to Providence Medical Center in Everett for treatment. He suffered a skull fracture and bruising on his brain and had to be hospitalized for a few days, the report indicates.
The deputies located Steinsiek outside his home on the day of the assault. Steinsiek claimed that he struck the man with the bat after the man tried to run him over with his car and threatened to kill him, the report states. Steinsiek believed he was defending his property, the deputy wrote.
