By MATT THACKER
The mother of a 22-year-old Jeffersonville man is seeking justice after she said her son was severely beaten just outside their front door.
Karen Newbold said that Jan. 4 her son, Joshua, was inside his house on Harmony Lane when four people drove from Louisville to assault him. She believes the crime was orchestrated by his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend. Newbold said another girl, 17, knocked on the door and asked for Joshua. A few minutes later, she heard a brushing sound against the house.
She opened the door to find her son covered in blood. She said the ex-girlfriend and a male subject were punching his face. Another man and the 17-year-old were standing next to them. Newbold began yelling at the assailants and chased them down the street.
“If I hadn’t opened the door when I did, they could have killed him,” Newbold said. “They weren’t hitting him anywhere except his face and his head.”
She believes they lured him out of the house with the intentions of attacking him.
Newbold took her son to Clark Memorial Hospital. He suffered a fractured nose, facial and scalp contusions and scalp hematoma. His nose injury required surgery.
“It was very traumatic for us,” she said. “We’ve never been through anything like this.”
Newbold and her son identified the four attackers, but no arrests have been made in the case. Newbold said she worries the case is being overlooked by prosecutors because it is a “black-on-black” crime.
Clark County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said there is no conspiracy, but admits there may have been a miscommunication between police and the prosecutor’s office. According to the incident report, police wanted to request warrants, but there was no case file opened in the prosecutor’s office.
Mull said he plans to seek warrants for at least two of the suspects in the case, but he first needs detectives to obtain better physical descriptions of the suspects. The computer system to issue warrants requires a physical description to be entered, he said.
“I wish they had pursued it earlier, not waiting three weeks,” Newbold said. “They should have followed up on it a lot sooner.”
The Evening News is not releasing the names of the four suspects because they have not been charged. They range in age from 17 to 21 and are all from Louisville.
