Man accused of beating girlfriend with baseball bat
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By MYFOXATLANTA STAFF
COWETA COUNTY, Ga. -
A Coweta County woman was left clinging to life after her boyfriend allegedly beat her with a baseball bat.
Nicole Hernane, 32, is in critical but stable condition at Atlanta Medical Center.
A friend, Dondra Davis, says Nicole's boyfriend, David Bennett, called her after he allegedly attacked her at the Newnan home on Tuesday.
"He told me, 'You better get over there and check on your friend.' I said, 'Why? What's the matter, Dabo?' He said, ‘You just need to get over there and check on your damn friend,'" said Davis.
Davis' husband rushed to the house, but he wasn't prepared for what he found. Nicole was bleeding profusely from two large cuts on her forehead. Her arms were broken and her eyes were swollen shut.
"They're hoping she'll be able to keep the eyesight in her right eye. And they had to do two surgeries on her right arm and her left arm is broke too and two fingers. So, she's pretty well beat up," said Davis.
Davis says Nicole was beaten so severely that doctors at Atlanta Medical Center had to perform reconstructive surgery on her face.
"I could tell that they did the surgery on her face, as far as the reconstructive part, because she looks better today than she did two days ago," said Davis.
Major James Yarbrough of the Coweta County Sheriff's Office calls this one of the worst domestic violence cases he's seen in more than three decades of law enforcement.
"We thought it was going to be a murder. We thought she was going to pass away," Yarbrough said.
The major says Atlanta police helped them track Bennett down through a cell phone signal. He's charged with beating his girlfriend nearly to death.
"Right now he is charged with aggravated battery. He's also charged with two sale of marijuana cases from a previous investigation. And we're looking at other charges too. It's ongoing," said Yarbrough.
Davis also claims David Bennett threatened to kill her and her family this week because they sheltered Nicole. She told FOX 5 that she plans to seek arrest warrants against Bennett over those alleged threats.
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