Two Pocatello men arrested in connection with vicious attack

POCATELLO — Two men have been arrested and charged for their alleged attack that left another man with numerous injuries.

Jamaal Kent Bell and Eli Flores, both 18, have each been charged with a felony for aggravated battery after police say they injured a man, putting shoe marks on his face and torso and leaving him with a concussion.

Pocatello police received a call reporting an assault around 6 p.m. on Oct. 9, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

Officers noted in police reports the victim’s face was swollen and his right eye was swollen shut. He also had a cut to his right ear from his attackers ripping out his earring, a “definitive shoe mark” on his face and bruising, cuts and shoe prints “all over his torso and ribs.”

He told police that at one point during the attack, he was knocked unconscious. A punch to his face “woke him back up.”

The affidavit noted that he may have suffered a concussion and a broken nose.

The victim told officers he attended a party the night of Oct. 7. At one point during the party, he was told a fight had broken out in the backyard. When he went to investigate, he said he was immediately punched in the face by Bell.

He said Bell punched him three or four times before his body went limp and he lost consciousness. Then Bell, Flores and two other people continuously punched and kicked him.

Asked how he knew what happened while he was unconscious, the victim told officers that he received a video of the incident from an unknown number the following day. He gave a copy of that video to officers.

Officers watched the video and confirmed the information the victim had provided, noting that during the video a person could be heard yelling for the attacks to stop, the affidavit says.

The victim did not call the police after the attack. In fact, he did not even call after Bell reportedly tried to run him off the road before driving past his house.

He was driving around 4 p.m. on Oct. 8 when a vehicle forced him from the road. The victim said he parked his car and got out in time to see the vehicle circle back past him. He identified Bell as the driver, adding that Flores was a passenger in the vehicle and “shot finger guns” at him as they passed.

The victim told officers he had never fought with the men prior to the attack.

Two witnesses spoke with the officer, corroborating the victim’s account of the attack.

Officers went to Bell’s home, but were told he was at work. When they got to his place of work, they were told he had just left on foot after telling his manager that he had to tend to a family emergency. The affidavit says that Bell’s vehicle, which matched the description of the vehicle used to run the victim off the road, was left in the parking lot.

Investigators called Bell, who refused to come in for questioning “because he did not want to be arrested,” the affidavit says.

Bell and Flores were eventually arrested by Bannock County Sheriff’s deputies, though the details of those arrests were not provided in police reports.

Both were booked in Bannock County Jail, where they are each being held on $30,000 bonds.

If they are found guilty, each of them could face up to 15 years in prison.

Bell is scheduled to appear in court before magistrate judge Aaron Thompson for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 26. Flores has a preliminary hearing scheduled with magistrate judge Scott Axline on Oct. 25.

Although Bell and Flores have been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean they committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.