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MOATSVILLE -- A Barbour County man faces charges after allegedly attacking and stabbing his father with a pickax.
Zachary Sean Suddith, 21, of Moatsville, is charged with one count of malicious or unlawful assault, a felony. He is also charged with one count of domestic battery, a misdemeanor. He is currently being held at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $35,000 10% and surety bond.
According to the criminal complaint, filed by Trooper K.D. Moss with the West Virginia State Police Philippi Detachment, on July 18, Suddith and his father, the alleged victim in this case, got into a physical altercation at a residence in Moatsville.
The alleged victim reportedly stated that Suddith had picked up a pickax from the backyard and began to swing it at him, the complaint states. The alleged victim tried to disarm Suddith, but during the fight, Suddith allegedly used the pickax to stab the alleged victim in the upper part of his left leg.
The alleged victim stated that he was able to throw the pickax away from the altercation. The fight then continued through the yard, through a barbed wire fence and into a ditch.
Suddith allegedly told police that “voices in his head” were telling him to harm his father “or he would be tortured,” the complaint states. He allegedly said that the voices had been telling him to harm his father for a few months and he “finally gave in.”
Moss arrived on the scene and observed both Suddith and the alleged victim in the ditch near the roadway “as if they were in a physical altercation,” the complaint states. Three bystanders had both men detained. Moss also observed the alleged victim tending to a wound on his left leg.