Police: Man savagely beats and stabs woman in front of her 2-year-old son and then gets toddler to attack her
Police say a man beat and stabbed a woman and then goaded her 2-year-old son into kicking and stabbing her.
David James Gifford, 36, of Burley, is charged with felony counts of domestic battery, injury to a child and attempted strangulation. Authorities said the victim was Gifford's girlfriend and she somehow survived the attack.
Gifford already had a warrant for his arrest for a previous incident when he attacked her, the Cassia County Sheriff's Office reported.
The latest charges against Gifford were filed after Cassia County sheriff's deputies were called around 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving day to a mobile home on East 16th Street in Burley where they found Gifford running from the home. After a brief chase, deputies lost him.
A woman at the home then took deputies to the victim, who was lying on a couch in the living room with stab wounds on her back, marks on her neck and face, and fresh blood on her clothing.
She told police Gifford grabbed her hair and was pulling her around, tried to choke her, kicked and punched her and stabbed her with a knife.
The woman said Gifford also told her 2-year-old son to kick her and to stab her with the knife, which the boy did.
Gifford told her that he was going to have her 2-year-old “kill her.”
Police say the boy stabbed his mother twice on her right shoulder. The woman also had bruises along her arms and legs and around her eye, nose and throat.
Inside the mobile home, the television screen was broken, a light bulb was shattered and scattered on a bathroom floor and food had been thrown all over the kitchen.
Felony domestic battery can be punished by 20 years in prison, felony injury to a child up to 10 years and felony attempted strangulation by 15 years.
Deputies tracked down and arrested Gifford without incident on Nov. 29. He is currently being held in the Mini-Cassia jail in Burley awaiting the adjudication of his case.
Police say a man beat and stabbed a woman and then goaded her 2-year-old son into kicking and stabbing her.
David James Gifford, 36, of Burley, is charged with felony counts of domestic battery, injury to a child and attempted strangulation. Authorities said the victim was Gifford's girlfriend and she somehow survived the attack.
Gifford already had a warrant for his arrest for a previous incident when he attacked her, the Cassia County Sheriff's Office reported.
The latest charges against Gifford were filed after Cassia County sheriff's deputies were called around 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving day to a mobile home on East 16th Street in Burley where they found Gifford running from the home. After a brief chase, deputies lost him.
A woman at the home then took deputies to the victim, who was lying on a couch in the living room with stab wounds on her back, marks on her neck and face, and fresh blood on her clothing.
She told police Gifford grabbed her hair and was pulling her around, tried to choke her, kicked and punched her and stabbed her with a knife.
The woman said Gifford also told her 2-year-old son to kick her and to stab her with the knife, which the boy did.
Gifford told her that he was going to have her 2-year-old “kill her.”
Police say the boy stabbed his mother twice on her right shoulder. The woman also had bruises along her arms and legs and around her eye, nose and throat.
Inside the mobile home, the television screen was broken, a light bulb was shattered and scattered on a bathroom floor and food had been thrown all over the kitchen.
Felony domestic battery can be punished by 20 years in prison, felony injury to a child up to 10 years and felony attempted strangulation by 15 years.
Deputies tracked down and arrested Gifford without incident on Nov. 29. He is currently being held in the Mini-Cassia jail in Burley awaiting the adjudication of his case.
