INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A 24-year-old man is suspected of beating a pregnant woman with a crowbar, ramming into her twice with his car and holding her against her will for several days last July, deputies said.
Joshua Sterling Smith, of Kissimmee, was arrested on a warrant Wednesday and charged with three counts of aggravated battery and false imprisonment. He is being held at the Indian River County Jail without bond.
The string of events, which stem from an earlier argument, began in Indian River County and continued into Osceola County in the city limits of Kissimmee.
About 2:30 a.m. July 5, 2017, Smith and the woman were driving back to the area from a club in Brevard County. Their car crashed into a tree near Gifford Middle School, leaving the vehicle with a flat tire, deputies said.
The two drove to Smith’s Grocery Store to get air for the tire. The woman told deputies Smith was acting crazy, yelling, and hitting her while he was intoxicated.
The woman, who was in the passenger seat, got out of the car, but then was pulled back in by Smith, who slapped her and ripped her shirt, deputies said. Smith then made the woman drive the car, and continued to beat her while she was driving.
The woman then drove into a ditch near 43rd Avenue and got out of the car, where Smith began to drag her around and pull her hair. The woman was able to free herself and then took of running.
Smith then got back in the car, drove it out of the ditch and hit the woman twice with the vehicle, causing her to fall to the ground and hit her head. Smith put her in the back of the car and drove south on 43rd Street, where he stopped the car, got a tire iron out of the trunk and began to beat the woman all over her body.
The woman told deputies she thought Smith was going to kill her and her unborn baby.
Smith told the woman she could not go back to her family because “her face was bruised and swollen from being hit,” deputies said. He said the two would go back to Kissimmee until her injuries healed and then held her captive for eight days; details on the captivity were not immediately available.
Smith was arrested and has an arraignment at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 14 in court, court records show.
