Caldwell man charged after allegedly hitting passing cars with baseball bat
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BANNOCK COUNTY — A man police say hit a passing truck because he believed that would stop a dog inside the truck from barking at him faces multiple felony charges.
Fernando Ponciano Wallace, 47, of Caldwell, has been charged with two counts of malicious injury to property and two counts of aggravated assault, court records show.
Bannock County Sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of a disturbance on North Yellowstone Highway around 7 p.m. Feb. 26, according to an affidavit of probable cause. The caller said a man was hitting cars with a metal baseball bat.
When they arrived, deputies saw a man, later identified as Wallace, carrying a “long object in his right hand.” Two men were walking behind Wallace.
Wallace followed deputies’ commands to drop the bat and walk toward the police cruisers, then to get down on his knees. Once he was in custody, the two men yelled obscenities at Wallace before walking away.
Police reports note that Wallace was wearing jeans with a tear in the right knee and that he had a bleeding road rash on his right leg near the tear. Wallace told the deputies he was being chased by dogs, and that he was wielding the bat to defend himself from the dogs.
Wallace also told the deputies that a truck drove past him. He said that he heard a dog barking inside the truck but that the dog stopped barking when he hit the truck with his bat.
Deputies took Wallace to Portneuf Medical Center for examination. When he was cleared, Wallace was taken to Bannock County Jail, where he was booked and is being held on a $10,000 bond.
Though Wallace has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.
If he is found guilty, Wallace would face up to 20 years in prison.
He is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing before Magistrate Judge David Penrod on Tuesday.