Police: Smyrna man beat another, 'seriously disfiguring' his face after minor car wreck
Oct. 17—Police say a Smyrna man faces multiple charges, including felony assault, after he beat a man with his fists and a pistol for asking for his insurance information following a minor car wreck.
Police say James Bernard Ray, 49, backed into another man's parked vehicle on Lincoln Trace Circle, across Windy Ridge Parkway from Truist Park, around 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 9.
The owner of the vehicle approached Ray and asked him for his insurance information, and Ray offered the man $300 in cash to pay for the damage, according to an arrest warrant. When the man refused and asked for his insurance information again, Ray "became irate with said victim and started punching the victim in the face," the warrant reads.
When the man fell to the ground, Ray got on top of him and continued beating him with a handgun, before pointing it at the man and asking him if he "still needed his insurance," the warrant states.
The warrant shows the incident left the man's face seriously disfigured.
Police say Ray left the scene, and when police showed up at his home, they found his vehicle — with damage to the rear left side of the car, engine bay still warm and a bloody hand print on the driver's side door — sitting outside his address.
Ray was arrested Thursday in connection to the Oct. 9 incident, according to jail records.
His felonies including aggravated assault with a weapon, aggravated battery disfigure and, on a separate warrant, theft by receiving a stolen firearm.
Police say they found the stolen .38-calibre revolver hidden in a laundry basket inside Ray's home while executing a search warrant at the time of his arrest in connection to the Oct. 9 incident. Ray also faces a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge.
Jail records show Ray paid a $30,000 bond the day after his arrest and has been released from the Cobb jail.
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