Speng Wrote:Man beats his quadruple amputee girlfriend

http://www.dreamindemon.com/2010/03/30/jacoby-smith-accused-of-pummeling-quadruple-amputee/

Her side:

A St. Paul man has been charged with beating up a quadruple amputee. The abuse reportedly started after she was blocking his view of the television.

Jacoby Smith, 37, was charged Friday for beating up a woman and trying to stop her from calling 911.

Neighbors thought the couple that lived inside the East St. Paul apartment on Jessie Street looked out for each other. Allegations of a brutal attack early Monday morning have changed their minds.

"He would be pushing her wheelchair and helping her out. I didn't think something like this would happen," Latonya Wulff, a neighbor said.

"A few times I helped her get her wheelchair out of the snow. She was a nice woman," Darryl Dawson, a neighbor said.

All four of that woman's limbs were amputated years ago, her arms below the elbow and her legs above the knee. Just before 7 a.m. Monday, she said her boyfriend, Smith, got mad that she was in front of the television.

According to the charges, he threw her to the ground and punched her in the face more than 10 times. She tried to get to the phone to call 911 but Smith swiped it and then blocked the door.

"It's scary. Like I said, she's helpless. She couldn't fight him back," Wulff said.

The woman eventually convinced Smith to take her to this Super America to get some ice for her injuries. She said she was finally able to get some help thanks to the clerk.

His side:

A St. Paul man charged with beating up a quadruple amputee last week admitted Monday that he hit the woman, but only after she hit him first.

A criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court said that Jacoby Laquan Smith got angry at his girlfriend Tiesha Bell because she blocked his view of the television in their East Side apartment. He threw her to the floor and punched Bell in the face more than 10 times in the March 22 incident, according to the criminal complaint.

But in a telephone interview, Smith, 33, said the dispute with Bell, 28, started with an argument over whether she was seeing another man.

"I had been dealing with her cheating on me," Smith said.

Smith said the argument escalated after "I turned on the TV and she got mad."

"She punched me in the groin" Smith said. He said Bell also hit him with a coffee canister and a bedpan.

"It was full of pee," he said.

In response, "I hit her once and that was it," Smith said. "Maybe twice."

Although Bell had both hands and part of both legs amputated because of a childhood illness, Smith said she can still be violent when she loses her temper.

"She'll swing, push me down and choke me with her nubs," Smith said. He said she also hit him with her wheelchair.

Bell on Monday agreed there was hitting on both sides. She said she plans to marry Smith and doesn't want him to serve jail time.

"We both need anger management," she said.

Securb Wrote:An unruly passenger who banged on the cockpit door of a SkyWest flight and claimed he was a space alien was arrested after the plane made an emergency landing Sunday in Idaho Falls.

Delta Connection Flight 4620 was en route from Helena, Mont., to Salt Lake City when a passenger got up and approached the cockpit, said SkyWest spokeswoman Marissa Snow.

"Reports from our crew say he actually started banging on the flight deck door," she said.

Snow did not have any other information to release Monday, including whether the man said anything while banging on the door. But Pocatello TV station KPVI reported he told flight attendants he was a space alien and wanted to fly the plane.

Flight attendants and other passengers were able to get the man back in his seat while the pilots diverted to Idaho Falls. The plane landed just after 6 p.m. Sunday, when authorities took the man into custody, she said.

The plane resumed its flight and arrived in Salt Lake City at 7:15 p.m. There were about 50 passengers on the plane. KPVI reported the man arrested was Matthew Kleindorfer, 32, of Las Vegas.