Man out on bond faces new charges for allegedly beating woman with bat
By Senait Gebregiorgis
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OSCEOLA COUNTY, Florida (WESH) — A man who was out on bond for a case in Orange County is in the Osceola County jail for an attempted murder charge.
Police say 31-year-old Terell Frederick Rodgers brutally beat the mother of his child with a baseball bat at a Kissimmee motel Sunday.
Police say the victim has multiple skull fractures and that when officers arrested Rodgers, he said, “I just killed my son’s mom … I think I killed her.”
Court records show Rodgers posted a $5,000 bond just a few days before he attacked the victim. The bond in Orange County was for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon involving another woman.
“The whole incident is traumatizing, you know,” said Dewayne Zolyniak, a witness and the victim’s friend. “Nobody in the room thought for one second that this man was going to do that to her, you know. What was going through his mind, I couldn’t tell you.”
Zolyniak told WESH 2 that he let the victim and Rodgers stay with him in his motel room and that there was a day when he walked into the couple arguing about something.
“I asked her a question — just a simple question, a random question,” Zolyniak said.
The arrest affidavit claims Rodgers told officers he was upset when the victim answered Zolyniak’s question after she ignored him earlier.
“Rodgers explained it was a buildup of frustrations throughout the day,” the affidavit says. “The only way to get [victim’s] attention was to do something outrageous, so he picked up the bat.”
“He had the bat in his hand, and he took it out on the TV. He proceeded to hit her, and then he proceeded to come at me with it, and he hit my friend with it, and he just went crazy,” said Zolyniak.
Zolyniak said his other friend in the room collapsed after being hit while trying to stop the attack.
“[Rodgers] barricaded [my friend and I in the bathroom,” said Zolyniak. “We were trying to get out of the door.”
Investigators say Rodgers left the room and the victim on the ground after striking her with the bat several times.
“Zolyniak also mentioned when he exited the restroom, he noticed a small fire had been started on his bed and was able to put it out before it spread,” the affidavit says.
During interrogation, detectives say Rodgers told them that “he felt like he was finally in control, getting the victim to listen to him … and that he felt a sense of pleasure from striking her.”
Rodgers allegedly described himself as “always abusive” and told officers “today was a different anger.”
“It was sick, it’s disgusting, and I’m sad for my friend that she even had to go through something like that because she’s a sweet girl,” said Zolyniak. “She’s a good mother. She’s a great person.”
Zolyniak said the victim, who remains in the hospital, has an 11-month-old son.
Rodgers is being held in the Osceola County jail without bond.
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