A rural Bloomfield man is accused of strangling a woman until she passed out then breaking the windows out of her vehicle with a crowbar while she was locked inside. He was arrested and will be in court next week.

Joshua Harrison Key, 41, of rural Bloomfield, was arrested by Deputy Zachary Goad of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department late Wednesday, April 22. Key was booked into the Greene County Jail before midnight.

Deputy Goad was dispatched to a residence on East Gallimore Road after a man called the sheriff’s department around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22, and said a woman had showed up at his house saying she had been battered and asking him to call law enforcement.

When Deputy Goad talked to the woman, she said Key had told her to get out and she was going to leave but he pushed her from behind and knocked her down. She said that during the rest of the altercation, he strangled her twice until she passed out, and that he hit her on her head and when she got into her vehicle and locked the doors, he busted the windows out.

Deputy Goad reported the woman had small cuts under an eye, dried blood on her lip, small cuts to a hand and a knee and visible redness around her throat and neck area. She said she thought she had glass in her face and eyes.

An ambulance was called and the woman was transported to a hospital.

When the deputy then talked to Key, he said the woman started the altercation by throwing ice cream at him then a jar of barbecue sauce. As the situation escalated, he said he tried to get her to be reasonable but admitted he “lost it” at one point and busted out the passenger side windows of her vehicle with a crowbar. He allegedly admitted holding the woman down to get her to stop throwing rocks at him, admitted grabbing her by the throat but said strangulation was not intentional.

Deputy Goad reported he was unable to locate any signs of injury on Key but did notice he had barbecue sauce on his clothes.

Key was taken into custody. His bond was set at $5,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed. He has since posted $500 and been released.

Key is scheduled to appear in Greene Superior Court for an initial hearing on Thursday, May 7.

He is facing charges of:

• Strangulation, a Level 6 felony,

• Domestic battery, a Class A misdemeanor, and

• Criminal mischief, a Class B misdemeanor.