Texas man arrested accused of severely beating woman in front of their baby at local campground

IDAHO FALLS – A Texas man was arrested after a woman says he beat her for five years, until she and her baby escaped his abuse.

Bradley Allen Brown, 29, of Estelline, Texas, was charged in Lemhi County and Clark County with felony domestic battery with traumatic injury and felony attempted strangulation.

On Jan. 28, around 2:15 p.m., an Idaho Falls Police officer was contacted by a woman who said she was being domestically abused.

The officer says the woman had two black eyes, injuries consistent with strangulation, and multiple cuts on her hands.

According to police reports, the woman claimed she was “tired of being beaten and afraid for her life.”

The woman’s story

The woman said that she Brown and their baby had been looking for a permanent home and sleeping in their car. She told the officer that Brown had been physically and mentally abusing her for the last five years.

According to the woman, they began staying at a campsite by the Salmon River, later identified as Bobcat Gulch, from Friday to Saturday.

She told the officer the two were having sex in the car when she “did something he didn’t like,” which resulted in him trying to choke her.

The force of the attempted strangling and the “extreme fear and stress” caused the woman to lose control of her bowels on the seat of the car.

According to the woman, Brown then dragged her out of the car by her hair and shoved her face in the snow. He then began “stomping on her head and back.”

Brown then allegedly turned the woman over in the snow and “stomped her abdominal area and kicked her.” According to the woman, Brown was also punching her and “would get angrier if she tried to block him or stop the strikes from impacting her body and face.”

The woman told the officer she now feels pain whenever she tries to hold her baby or drink water. She explained she didn’t lose consciousness during the attack but suffered double vision.

When asked by the officer if Brown had ever struck her so hard she passed out, she stated no but said he had strangled her enough to where she had passed out before.

After the attack, Brown reportedly forced the woman to clean the car. While she was cleaning, he allegedly picked up rocks and repeatedly threw them at her head.

They then traveled to Birch Creek Campground, south of North Fork, where they stayed from Saturday night until Sunday morning.

According to the woman, Brown bit her several times on her left hand and wrist while staying at the Birch Creek campground. He also allegedly grabbed her by the throat and bit her neck and upper back area.

On Sunday, they traveled to Idaho Falls to get supplies. According to the woman, Brown forced her to stay in the car while he went into different stores. She told the officer she planned to get help if she could get inside a store.

She then told the officer her baby was with them during the attacks. According to the woman, the baby was born in Texas at home and had never been seen by a doctor or given any form of identification.

The officer observed that the baby “appeared to be very small” and told the woman that the child needed to be seen by a doctor immediately, so she agreed to go to the hospital.

During an interview with two chaplains, the woman said she had an injury on her chest from Brown stabbing her with a car key. She also admitted that she was the victim of sexual abuse.

The woman and the baby were then taken to a local hospital. The officer writes in the report that after being evaluated, the baby seemed “to be doing OK, barring a premature birth.”

The officer and one of the chaplains were asked to get diapers and swipes from the vehicle. The officer notes that the entire front dashboard had been removed, the back seat and car seat were “full of clothes and a computer, door locks and lock buttons had been taped over, and that the vehicle has a(n) overpower(ing) nauseating odor inside.”

After being seen by a doctor, the woman was found to have a punctured right lung, broken neck cartilage, old and newly fractured ribs, and a broken nose. The woman and baby were then admitted to the hospital.

Brown interviewed

During the investigation, officers say Brown called dispatch and reported the woman and baby missing. He was then taken to the police station, where the officer interviewed him.

Brown confirmed that he lived in a car with the woman and baby near Salmon and then at Birch Creek campground.

The officer informed Brown that he was investigating him and the woman for the possible child abuse/neglect of the baby.

When asked the name of the baby, Brown reportedly stated, “I don’t feel comfortable telling you this information.”

Brown said around noon, he was shopping for about two hours at the mall.

When he left, he noticed the woman, the baby, and the car were missing, so he went back inside the mall and called 911.

According to officers, the woman came to the police station around 2:15 p.m., and Brown called the woman and baby in as missing at 3:50 p.m.

Brown told the officer the woman had encephalopathy and “some other stuff” due to her “brawling.” The officer clarified that he was saying the woman was doing mixed martial arts style fighting in Texas.

According to a police report filed by an Idaho State Police detective, the woman told the detective that she had been covering up the abuse by telling people she had been doing “MMA fights or backyard fights.”

The detective also interviewed Brown, who denied knowing how the woman got bruises on her face. Eventually, he reportedly told the detective that she “may have bumped her head during sex in the vehicle.”

When asked about the woman’s other injuries, Brown reportedly claimed the woman had hemophilia and was lying.

When confronted about the allegations that he had stomped on the woman’s head, he refused to answer any more questions.

Brown was then interviewed again by the IFPD officer. When told he was being charged with domestic battery, he allegedly claimed the woman had injured his genitals.

He was then transported to the Clark County Jail. His bond was set at $40,000 and a no-contact order was issued.

He is expected to appear in court for a pre-trial conference in Clark County on Feb. 6, and a preliminary hearing in Lemhi County on Feb. 13.

If convicted, domestic battery with traumatic injury is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and attempted strangulation is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Though Brown has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.