PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — A Floyd County man was arrested after his wife said he assaulted her with his fists and a remote control.

The case began just before 3 a.m. Tuesday, when a Prestonsburg Police officer spotted a car with a broken windshield and one working headline circling the Court Street and North Lake Drive area several times. He stopped the car on Arnold Avenue, in front of the library.

The woman driving the car got out and said she was looking for her husband, Ruben Dario Garcia, 26, of Prestonsburg, who she accused of assaulting her earlier. The officer wrote in his report the woman had cuts and bruises around her eyes and nose, and that her nose appeared to be broken.

The woman told police the couple had been arguing while sitting in their car outside their home, when Garcia got out of the car and punched the windshield, shattering it. She said they settled the argument and went to bed, but said Garcia then hit her in the mouth while she was lying in bed. After she got up, she said he began hitting her in the face with the remote control and his hands, until she was able to get in her car to get away from him.

After that, she said she saw him walking away from their apartment, and she had been driving around trying to find him.

Police were not able to locate him until after 10:30 p.m., when he was spotted walking along Porter Street.

Garcia was arrested on a charge of second-degree assault, a felony punishable by 5-to-10 years in prison. He is being held in the Floyd County Detention Center on a $25,000 cash bond.

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PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — A Floyd County man has been arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman eight months ago.

Austin Reahard, 31, of Prestonsburg, is accused of grabbing the woman by the shoulders as she walked out of a Prestonsburg restaurant August 29 and shoving her to the ground. The woman hit the ground with such force that the arrest warrant says she suffered a fractured vertebra.

Reahard is now charged with second-degree assault, a felony punishable by 5-to-10 years in prison. He was released from jail on an unsecured $25,000 bond.

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SALYERSVILLE, Ky. — A Magoffin County man is facing felony charges, after he allegedly fired a gun into a house that contained two people.

The shooting happened on Wednesday along Old Lick Creek. Victims told police that Trenton Jay Caudill, 25, of Salyersville, fired 11 shots from .22 caliber firearm through a closed door. One of the rounds grazed the arm of one of the occupants.

Caudill was arrested Thursday night by the Magoffin County Sheriff’s Office and Kentucky State Police. He is charged with one count of second-degree assault and two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment. The assault charge is the most serious, carrying a potential sentence of 5-to-10 years in prison.

Caudill is being held in the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center in Paintsville on a $25,000 cash bond.

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SHELBIANA, Ky. — A Pike County man is facing a felony assault charge for allegedly shooting his neighbor.

Police were called to Pikeville Medical Center after a man showed up in the emergency with a gunshot wound in his left foot near the ankle.

The victim told police that he was cutting grass on his property at Shelbiana, when 83-year-old Franklin Kendrick came out of his home and began arguing with him. He said he was by his vehicle when Kendrick shot him.

When police went to talk to Kendrick, he chose to remain silent until he could speak to his attorney. His family provided police with .45 caliber gun used in the shooting.

Police said they learned from interviews that the two men had a longstanding property dispute.

Kendrick was arrested and charged with first-degree assault, a felony punishable by 10-to-20 years in prison. He is being held in the Pike County jail on a $10,000 cash bond.

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BANNER, Ky. — A Floyd County man is facing a felony assault charge, after his mother reported that he beat her.

Sheriff’s deputies and state troopers responded after 911 received an open-line call just after 2 a.m. Sunday, during which dispatchers could hear a man screaming that he was going to kill his mother and then himself.

A state trooper and EMTs found the victim, who was described as having a possible fractured jaw and eye socket, a loose tooth and seven or eight knots on her head and body.

The son, identified as Justin Ryan Lewis, 41, of Daniels Creek, had left the home by the time first responders arrived, but was soon located by sheriff’s deputies.

Lewis reportedly had glassy eyes, slurred speech and an odor of alcohol, and he blew a point-147 on a breathalyzer, nearly twice the legal limit. When asked if he had been drinking, he reportedly told police, “Seriously? It is obvious I’ve been drinking.”

He denied hitting his mother.

Lewis was charged with second-degree assault, terroristic threatening and DUI, and is being held on a $15,000 cash bond. The assault charge is a felony punishable by 5-to-10 years in prison.

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LONDON, Ky. — A former guard at the Martin County federal prison has been sentenced for his role in a conspiracy to abuse inmates.

Terry Melvin, 60, pleaded guilty in January 2025 to conspiracy against rights and deprivation of civil rights.
On Thursday, he was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. The charges stemmed from Melvin’s time as a lieutenant at U.S. Penitentiary Big Sandy.

In his plea agreement, he described an “unofficial” policy of abuse at the prison.

Under Bureau of Prisons rules, inmates who request protective custody due to threats are placed in a special housing unit, or SHU, while their claims are investigated. But Melvin’s plea agreement revealed that he conspired with at least 17 other prison employees, including several senior staff, to reduce the population of the SHU by assaulting inmates.

The plea agreement says inmates were given a chance to withdraw their complaints, and those who did would be returned to their regular housing unit. Those who didn’t would be assaulted by prison employees, then false reports would be filed claiming the abuse was a response to the prisoner attacking a guard.

The plea agreement says prison staff were given promotions and monetary rewards worth thousands to go along with the scheme.

Melvin’s 48-month sentence was less than the 63 months prosecutors had been seeking, but more than the 12 months and one day Melvin had requested.

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BEAVER, Ky. — A man and a juvenile have been arrested in connection with an assault that left a Floyd County man fighting for his life.

State troopers were called to a report of an assault along Route 979 at Beaver. When they arrived, they found Jeremy Tackett to have sustained life-threatening injuries in a physical altercation.

Following an investigation, Dravin Scott Hamilton, 20, of Floyd County, and a 16-year-old were charged with second-degree assault, a felony punishable by 5-to-10 years in prison.

Hamilton is being held in the Floyd County jail on a $10,000 cash bond.

The teen was taken to the Breathitt County Juvenile Detention Center.

The case remains under investigation.

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BETSY LAYNE, Ky. — A Wise County man is facing a felony assault charge, for allegedly driving drunk when he was involved in an injury crash at Betsy Layne.

Deputies were called to the crash which occurred last Wednesday night. When they arrived, they found Carter Ferrell Willey, 23, of Wise, who the police report describes as smelling of alcohol and slurring his speech while being belligerent.

Willey denied that he was driving at the time of the crash, but witnesses at the scene and a passenger in his car all said he was. He also registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.204 on a breathalyzer, more than two-and-a-half times the legal limit.

Willey is now charged with first-degree assault, aggravated second-offense DUI and other charges. The assault charge is a felony, punishable by 10-to-20 years in prison.

He is being held on a $10,000 cash bond.

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PAINTSVILLE, Ky. — A Johnson County man was arrested early Sunday morning, after a Paintsville resident reported seeing someone breaking into his storage building.

Paintsville Police were called to an address on Pine Street reporting the break-in. The caller reported seeing a man running away with his weedeater, but said he dropped it near Broadway and continued running.

Police found the suspect — later identified as 19-year-old Devin Wells — at a nearby gas station and tried to talk to him, but said he ran away instead. Wells was arrested after a short chase, but that wasn’t the end of the story.

Police say as Wells was being taken to jail, he slipped out of his handcuffs and began kicking on the window to try to break it. The officer pulled over to try to secure him, but said Wells kicked him in the face and struck him several other times in the face and body. He was finally handcuffed again after the officer used pepper spray.

Wells now faces charges of burglary, assaulting an officer, attempted escape, fleeing police and other charges. He is being held in the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center, in Paintsville.

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ASHLAND, Ky. — A federal inmate at the Big Sandy federal prison has been indicted for three counts of assaulting correctional officers at the prison.

Daviian Dwane Roberts, 35, who is now serving a 12.5-year sentence on federal weapons charges in the federal supermax prison in Florence, Col., is accused of assaulting three corrections officers with a weapon last March. The charges could add up to 20 years to his sentence.

No hearings have yet been set in the case.

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