Police arrested a Greenwood man after he allegedly beat and strangled a woman in a drunken rage and confined her to a local hotel room.
Joseph Tyler Simpson, 45, was arrested on charges of criminal confinement, battery causing moderate bodily injury and strangulation, all felonies. He is being held at the Johnson County jail on $18,000 bond.
While strangulation means the act of killing by squeezing the throat, Indiana law defines it as applying pressure to another person’s throat or obstructing their nose or mouth.
Just after 2 a.m. Tuesday, Greenwood police were dispatched to an Indianapolis residence on the report of a battery with injury. Police met a woman who said she had just left an area hospital where she had to have multiple tests done, including x-rays and a CT scan, due to a physical assault that occurred hours earlier, according to a Greenwood Police Department report. She had bruises and blood-shot eyes, a broken pinky finger and was missing three fingernails, police said.
The victim told police that on Monday evening, she and Simpson rented a room at a Greenwood hotel. Around 9 p.m., Simpson became agitated about a prior incident and physically assaulted her, according to the report.
She told police Simpson put his hands over her mouth so she couldn’t breathe, choked her and hit her multiple times, the report said.
At one point, the victim managed to break away from Simpson and run toward the door, but the security lock prevented her from leaving and Simpson pulled her back into the room and started beating her again. He also twisted her ankle, according to the report.
The victim eventually escaped, the report said.
When police arrested Simpson at the hotel room where the incident had occurred, they found fingernails inside and outside the room, and observed dried blood on the inside of the door handle and on the interior of the door. The door frame was also broken, police said.
