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View Winners → Crime Aug 16, 2022
The Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach. | Photo courtesy of Flock of Legals
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A 45-year-old man was charged Tuesday with attacking a woman with a hatchet and holding the victim captive against her will in a Ladera Ranch apartment for hours as the suspect threatened he wanted to commit suicide by cop.
Jason Daniel Cole was charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment of an elder or dependent adult by violence, assault with a deadly weapon, assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and false imprisonment of an elder, all felonies. He pleaded not guilty in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana Tuesday and was ordered to return to court Aug. 24 for a pretrial hearing in the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.
Orange County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched just before 7 p.m. Saturday to an apartment complex in Ladera Ranch regarding the suspect who was having suicidal thoughts and holding a woman against her will, Orange County sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Steinle said.
When deputies arrived they heard the sounds of an argument and made contact with the suspect, who said he wanted to commit suicide by cop, Steinle said. Deputies attempted to negotiate his exit from the apartment, but he refused, Steinle said.
Deputies convinced him to let the 66-year-old victim go about 10:15 p.m., Steinle said. She was taken to Mission Hospital to be treated, he said.
The woman said the ordeal with the defendant started that morning when he assaulted her multiple times and choked her while refusing to let her go, Steinle said. According to the criminal complaint, the defendant is accused of attacking the woman with a hatchet.
At just about midnight, deputies sent in a police dog to subdue the defendant and take him into custody, Steinle said.
