A 44-year-old Orange man is facing an aggravated assault charge after a Jefferson County grand jury indicted him this month over a July 4 attack that police say left his girlfriend bleeding, choked, and dodging a bullet inside a Beaumont home. Leejay Chargois was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and he remains held at the Jefferson County jail.
According to the Beaumont Enterprise, Beaumont police responded to a report of a fight in the 3900 block of Fonville Avenue on July 4 after a woman was heard calling out for help and asking someone to call police. Officers say Chargois hit the woman with his hands and used a metal tripod to assault her before choking her, which caused bleeding in her eyes. The outlet reports that he then held a knife to her stomach while she lay on the ground.
Police say the attack escalated further when Chargois fired a 9mm handgun at the woman; the shot missed her but left a hole in the wall, per the same account. Patrol officers arrested him after he ran back into the house, and the woman was taken to Baptist Hospital for treatment. Chargois denied assaulting the woman after he was detained, the report notes.
Grand Jury Indictment and Charges
The September 16 indictment from Jefferson County, first detailed by KOGT, lays out the same allegations in more granular detail — the metal tripod, the choking, the knife held against her stomach as she curled in a fetal position, and the gunshot that missed her and struck the wall. Beyond the aggravated assault charge, Chargois faces a parole violation with no bond set and a separate charge for violating bond or a protective order carrying a $5,000 bond, according to the Beaumont Enterprise.
Under Texas Penal Code Section 22.02, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon is generally a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to FindLaw. That exposure can climb to a first-degree felony when the offense involves a deadly weapon and causes serious bodily injury to a person in a specified relationship. The indictment was returned in Jefferson County. The 252nd Criminal District Court is presided over by Judge Raquel West, who has served on that bench since 2015, per Jefferson County records.
A Documented History of Supervision Violations
A 2014 decision by the Texas Ninth Court of Appeals involved Chargois, according to Justia Law.
Four years earlier, in November 2010, U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone in Beaumont revoked Chargois's federal supervised release after he admitted to violating its conditions, according to records from GovInfo covering the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The cases include proceedings in both state and federal courts in Southeast Texas.
Domestic Violence Remains a Persistent Local and Statewide Problem
The Beaumont Police Department's Family Violence Unit investigates between 2,000 and 3,000 domestic violence cases each year across the city, according to The Examiner, which reports that the unit works with partner agencies on investigations and safety planning. Statewide, Texas law enforcement agencies recorded 250,048 family violence offenses in 2024, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Research from the Texas Council on Family Violence indicates that roughly 70% of domestic violence offenders in the state abuse the same victim again even after law enforcement warnings or protective orders are issued, and some cases can escalate over time. The stakes of that pattern were stark in 2024, when intimate partner violence killed 161 Texans.
