Knife attack described

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Knife attack described at preliminary hearing

By Eric Harkreader, Sentinel Reporter, June 30, 2006

A bouncer at a Carlisle bar testified Thursday at a preliminary hearing that he was escorting a female patron home after closing time last weekend when the two were attacked by a man with a curved 21-inch machete.

The alleged attack occurred just after 2:30 a.m. while the woman and Allen Hill, 33, were sitting on the bed of her South East Street home watching television. They had been there five minutes and were planning on going to get something to eat when she heard a noise on her porch.

“I turned around and said that’s him, and no sooner than I turned to (Hill) than I saw the machete coming through my screen,” the woman said.

As an acquaintance of alleged attacker Richard “Chip” Hodge, the woman said she knew what the 40-year-old was like when he was drunk and wasn’t taking any chances. The woman said Hodge had been “all up in my face” all night at the Plunkett on North Pitt Street. Hill, meanwhile, testified that he knew both Hodge and the woman, and that he “knew there was going to be something” when he and the pair were the only ones left in the bar.

Called police

Back at the home, meanwhile, seeing the knife prompted the woman to dash to the bathroom, lock the door and call 911.

Hill, meanwhile, said he was thinking “I’m not locking myself in the bathroom” when he grabbed a mop out from a bucket in the home’s kitchen and braced himself for Hodge, who was climbing in through the slashed screen window.

“He put it up and came running down the hall,” Hill testified, gesturing with his hand above his head.

And that’s when reality hit.

“I was thinking I ain’t going to die in this hallway,” Hill said, adding that he grabbed the swinging hand of Hodge holding the knife and pinned him against the wall. The knife came within 3 inches of his face, he added.

When police arrived some 90 seconds after the call, the woman ran out screaming, but managed to tell officers the knife had been seized and was back in its holster, Carlisle Officer Daniel Parson testified.

Inside, Hill, who has 7 inches and almost 80 lbs. on Hodge, remained atop the smaller man and had to be coaxed by police to let him up.

As officers attempted to subdue Hodge, he began struggling but was eventually talked down, Parson said.

“I know Mr. Hodge well and go by and speak to him every night,” Parson said. “I said why don’t you take three seconds, think about what you’re doing.”

As he was being led to the police cruiser, Hodge began acting like himself again, Parson said.

“He said he was looking forward to ‘three hots and three cots at the county prison,’” he added.

Police charged Hodge with aggravated assault, two counts of simple assault, burglary, criminal mischief and having a prohibited offensive weapon. He was jailed on $100,000 bail, an amount Chief Public Defender Taylor Andrews said he wasn’t going to request changes to as of Thursday.

It wasn’t the first time Hodge was arrested with a blade in hand.

Almost two years ago exactly, he was arrested after police spotted him carrying what they described as a sword early in the morning hours in the 100 block of North West Street. He was charged with disorderly conduct, public drunkenness, prohibited offensive weapons and possession of marijuana in that encounter.

Court records show he served 90 days probation after pleading guilty to the first two charges. The “sword” was seized, police say.