A man reported to be paranoid over alleged “cheating” on the part of his partner and threatening the woman and her juvenile son appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Monday.
23-year-old Jonathan Cole Smith, Jr., entered a not guilty plea to the charges against him. Mountain Home attorney Paul Bayless represents him.
OPEN LINE 911 CALLS
In the early morning hours of January 5, police were dispatched to an address along Cresswell in answer to a number of “open line” calls.
Open line calls are those received by 911 in which no one speaks – indicating at times that a victim is too afraid to speak or not able to communicate.
When officers arrived, the victim came to the front door. She was reported to appear frightened and made attempts to have officers lower their voices.
She said Smith was in the house, possibly armed with a handgun. She said he might be under the influence of drugs and was paranoid about his belief that the woman was seeing someone else.
At one point, Smith is alleged to have told her, “tell me who it is before things get bloody.”
The woman said she took that as a threat to hurt her and her juvenile son. Police took both the woman and her son out of the house.
Law enforcement officers from several departments set up a perimeter around the residence and numerous attempts were made to have Smith come out of the house. He eventually opened the door to the residence and surrendered.
At the time of the incident, Smith was a parole absconder with a no bond warrant.
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