A 24-year-old New Palestine man is facing two felony charges after police say he swung a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire during a domestic dispute, bringing the weapon so close to a woman's face that it nearly touched her nose. Lonnie Leroy Helton III was arrested following a September 21 domestic-disturbance call, and he remains held on a $10,000 cash bond ahead of a bail review hearing set for Tuesday.
According to The Daily Reporter, New Palestine police responded to the apartment building on East Main Street after the dispute escalated. Helton himself placed the initial call, telling officers a woman had slapped him twice in the face as they were leaving a concert in Noblesville and that he wanted the alleged slapping reported. Police said they found no marks on Helton's face, and he acknowledged he had been drinking.
The woman gave officers a different account, telling them she and Helton had fought at the Hamilton County concert and that she had smacked him in the face there. But she said the fight didn't end at the venue. It continued when the pair arrived back at her apartment in New Palestine, where she said Helton kept fighting with her once they were in Hancock County.
Bat Allegedly Swung at Door, Brought Near Woman's Face
During that confrontation, the woman said, Helton swung the barbed-wire-wrapped bat and struck her bedroom door, then brought the bat toward her face, nearly touching her nose. Officers later noticed damage to the apartment door consistent with her account, and a witness confirmed that Helton had used the bat during the altercation.
The woman also told police that Helton regularly points the bat at her face and that he has hurt her in the past, including with the bat itself. She said Helton believes he is Hitler, according to the probable cause affidavit described by the Greenfield newspaper. Separately, per affidavits filed in Hancock Circuit Court, the woman told investigators Helton regularly targeted her with the bat and made statements claiming the weapon retained skin from prior violent incidents.
Charges Hinge on Indiana's Deadly-Weapon Statutes
Helton was charged with a Level 5 felony count of intimidation involving the drawing or use of a deadly weapon, along with a Level 6 felony count of criminal recklessness involving a deadly weapon. Under Indiana law, communicating a threat is ordinarily a Class A misdemeanor, but drawing or wielding a deadly weapon elevates the offense to a Level 5 felony, according to Rigney Law LLC.
A similar escalation applies to the recklessness charge. Creating a substantial risk of bodily injury is typically a Class B misdemeanor in Indiana, but doing so while armed with a deadly weapon bumps the offense up to a Level 6 felony, per Banks & Brower. A Level 5 felony conviction carries a mandatory prison term of one to six years, with an advisory sentence of three years and fines up to $10,000, according to Bernhardt Phillips, LLP. The Level 6 felony carries a term of six months to two-and-a-half years, and it is the only felony class in Indiana eligible for judicial reduction to a Class A misdemeanor through Alternative Misdemeanor Sentencing, according to Keffer Hirschauer LLP.
Court filings in the case list addresses for Helton in both the 6300 block of West Hollyhock Court and the 20 block of East Main Street in New Palestine, according to charging logs reviewed by the Greenfield paper.
No-Contact Order in Place as Bail Review Nears
At Helton's initial hearing last week in Hancock Circuit Court, Judge Scott Sirk entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf, issued a no-contact order, and set the $10,000 cash bond. Judge Sirk was appointed to the Hancock Circuit Court bench in December 2017 after eight years as a Hancock County court commissioner and as the county's chief deputy prosecuting attorney, according to the IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
Helton is being held at the Hancock County Jail in Greenfield, a 446-bed facility that opened in May 2022 and requires a mandatory $5 administrative state fee on all criminal case cash bonds, according to Hancock County, IN. His bail review hearing, where defendants can petition for lowered bail or modified release conditions, is scheduled for Tuesday. Hancock County Prosecutor Brent Eaton has previously raised public safety concerns about such bond reductions in violent felony cases, a tension that has surfaced before in Hancock Circuit Court proceedings.
The New Palestine Police Department, which handled the initial call, expanded its full-time staffing to eight officers under Town Marshal Bob Ehle earlier this year, establishing two-officer shift coverage as the town's population surpassed 3,200 residents. The case adds to a string of felony prosecutions involving New Palestine residents that Hoodline has tracked this year, including an unrelated case in which a New Palestine man was jailed on 11 felony counts following a Microsoft tip on child abuse files.
