John Jefferson
Inset: Terell Rodgers (Osceola County Jail). Background: Baymont hotel in Kissimmee, Florida, where he allegedly beat his girlfriend with a baseball bat (Google Maps).
Florida authorities arrested a man who allegedly beat his girlfriend with a baseball bat, leaving her with injuries so severe her quality of life will be “greatly impacted” should she survive.
Terell Fredrick Rodgers, 31, stands accused of attempted murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, arson and false imprisonment. The victim, a 25-year-old woman, was suffering from multiple skull fractures and bleeding from her brain. Doctors don’t believe she will survive and if she does she will have long-lasting impacts from the brutal attack.
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According to a probable cause arrest affidavit by Kissimmee police, Rodgers and the woman were in an argument in room 235 at the Baymont Hotel on Sunday afternoon when he took a baseball bat and started beating her with it until she “stopped moving.” Rodgers also allegedly struck two other men with the bat. They scurried into the bathroom for their safety. The men told cops as they heard the continued assault on the woman in the main room, they tried to leave the bathroom to intervene but Rodgers blocked the door.
After the beating was over, Rodgers set the bed on fire, police said. One of the men quickly extinguished the fire.
One of the men said in an interview with detectives that he was renting the room where the attempted murder occurred. He said he occasionally allows homeless people to come into his room to take a shower and go to the bathroom. He said Rodgers and his girlfriend were in the room while she took a shower. They were arguing when the other male victim knocked on the door and the man renting the room allowed him in and asked Rodgers’ girlfriend if she wanted any food. This apparently made Rodgers upset. He then grabbed the bat and smashed a TV before he began his onslaught on his girlfriend and the other men, the affidavit said.
When cops arrived, Rodgers allegedly said “I just killed my son’s mom” and “I think I killed her.” When asked if he had any weapons, he said the only weapon was the bat in the room. “The bat, yeah, I did it. Yes sir,” according to the affidavit. Post-Miranda, Rodgers said frustrations had been boiling with his girlfriend and others all day. He became upset when one of the male victims asked why she didn’t have any money. Rodgers reportedly said he was trying to get his girlfriend’s attention and the only way to do so was to “do something outrageous,” cops wrote. That’s when he grabbed the bat and hit the TV and then the men.
Rodgers said his anger only grew from there so he started hitting his girlfriend. He blamed his initial anger on the meth he smoked earlier in the day. He first hit her in her side, and then went to work on her face and head, followed by her arms and legs as she lay on the ground trying to defend herself. While he described himself as “always abusive,” this attack rose to a new level, police said.
“Today was a different anger,” he told police.
One of the men needed stitches for his head while the other did not have serious injuries.
Cops took Rodgers to the Osceola County Jail where he is being held without bond.
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