NORTHAMPTON — A Connecticut man was ordered held without bail Monday on allegations that he tried to kill his 41-year-old girlfriend at her Easthampton home after he stabbed her in the arm over the weekend.
Northampton District Court Judge Maureen Walsh ordered George Archer, 42, of Hartford held pending a dangerousness hearing on Friday, Archer’s attorney, Alan Rubin, said. Rubin declined to comment on the case.
According to a report by Easthampton Police Officer Timothy S. Rogers, police responded to a residence on East Street at 6:50 p.m. Saturday for a reported stabbing. Rogers wrote that when he arrived, the door was opened by a person later identified as Archer, whose white T-shirt, hands and forearms were allegedly covered in blood.
Inside the house, Rogers saw a woman slumped over the kitchen table with a “severe laceration” to her left arm as well as a makeshift tourniquet.
“Under her arm was a large pool of blood,” Rogers wrote. “The area surrounding her was covered in broken dishes and glasses with large amounts of blood covering the area. This female party appeared to be in shock, and nonverbal at this time.”
According to Rogers’ report, Archer refused to listen to police commands to kneel on the ground and show his hands, asking officers to help the woman. Archer allegedly became “belligerent,” raising his hands in protest “while standing in an assaultive stance,” reportedly yelling “Why don’t you just shoot me?” Officers drew their Tasers and eventually handcuffed Archer.
After the woman was transported to Baystate Medical Center for her injuries, Archer, who was unarmed, became increasingly unwilling to cooperate with officers, Rogers wrote. At the Easthampton Public Safety Complex, Archer reportedly went from being conversational to punching walls and yelling at officers. Police also reportedly smelled alcohol coming from Archer’s breath.
Archer allegedly told police that he was watching TV in the house before the woman began bleeding and that he had tried to help her. Rogers wrote that the TV was turned off when police arrived. A bail clerk ordered Archer held without bail due to his unwillingness to cooperate during the booking process.
Rogers wrote that when another officer was helping Archer into a car for transport to the Hampshire County Jail, Archer allegedly told the officer “I won’t always be locked up you know … maybe I’ll come visit you.”
According to another police report written by Easthampton Detective Andrew Beaulieu, the woman had told officers that Archer used a pocket knife to cut her. Along with other evidence, police found a folding knife on the ground that was collected as evidence.
On Sunday, Beaulieu took a statement from the woman. She told officers that she had no feeling in her left arm and, after receiving 13 stitches, could not hold or grip anything.
“She told me the doctors believe nerve damage is quite probable,” Beaulieu wrote.
In her typed statement to police, the woman said she and Archer, who likes to be called “Clive,” had been dating for two years and that he stays at her apartment two or three times a week.
She wrote that the two had gotten into an argument over his use of her car. According to the woman, Archer showed up to her house drunk and refused to leave.
The woman said Archer grabbed her by the neck and pushed her into the corner of the kitchen. When he released her, she grabbed a butter knife to defend herself before Archer allegedly pulled out a knife of his own.
Archer disarmed the woman, took his knife and sliced into her forearm, she said in her statement.
“I pushed him back and grabbed the dish cloth from the stove,” she wrote. “This made me scared and I actually thought I could die in my kitchen.”
According to the woman’s report, Archer then took off his belt and put it around her arm.
Archer is charged with attempted murder, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a family or household member, threat to commit murder, strangulation or suffocation, assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and intimidation of a witness.
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.