A Rochester man made his initial appearance Wednesday in Olmsted County District Court, where he's been charged with multiple felonies for reportedly breaking into a woman's home and assaulting her with a baseball bat.
Andre Terrell Chaplin, 30, faces three counts of first-degree burglary, two counts of stalking and one count each of second-degree assault and domestic assault, all felonies.
He remains in custody in lieu of $30,000 conditional bail and is due back in court May 10.
Though the incident allegedly occurred April 6, it wasn't accurately reported until April 10.
The victim went to a local hospital after the assault, claiming that an unknown man had attacked her on the bike path near McQuillan Field Park. The assault left her with swollen eyes, several scratches on her forehead, a bloody lower lip, a small cut on the middle of her chin and on her right wrist, and several red welts on the left side of her body where she was hit by the bat, the complaint says.
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A few days later, the woman's neighbor told an investigator that he'd seen the assault.
The victim said she'd made the false report because Chaplin has a gun and she's afraid he might kill her, the report says. On the day of the assault, she woke up to Chaplin holding a baseball bat, yelling at her after kicking in the front door of her residence.
When she yelled back at him, he punched her in the face, court documents say, and the two began fighting. One of the woman's roommates broke up the fight; Chaplin grabbed the woman's prescription medication and left the home. The victim ran outside after him to retrieve her medication, the document continues, and Chaplin "turned on her with the bat and swung it at her."
He allegedly continued swinging the bat several times, hitting both of her arms, her shoulder and her back before leaving in his car.
A review of Chaplin's criminal history indicates convictions for domestic violence-related offenses in 2007, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
