April 28-May 5: Domestic Assault On Way Home From Bar

Drunk fight

A drunken argument on the way home from a bar resulted in one man being arrested and facial bruises for his live-in girlfriend last week.

According to a report from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, Thomas Trask, 28, and his 23-year-old girlfriend were driving back to their Kenneth Avenue residence Thursday night when the 6-foot-2 Trask allegedly struck his girlfriend in the eye and lip following an argument.

Alcohol played a factor in the argument, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

Trask was later arrested on a felony charge of domestic violence and booked at the Main Jail in Sacramento on $70,000 bail.

While Trask was listed as a Sacramento resident, his home is on the border of Fair Oaks and Carmichael.

Ramos described the threshold for making arrests in domestic assault cases, saying “all that is required is either a complaint of pain, or visible sign of injury to one of the parties.”

“If either or both of these are present, even if the victim does not want to cooperate, officers shall make an arrest,” he added. “In this case, the victim both complained of pain and had visible sign of injury.”

As of Wednesday, Trask hadn’t been arraigned, according to Sacramento Superior Court online records. Arraignment is typically required within 48 hours of arrest, indicating the possibility that the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office did not level official charges.

A Thomas Christopher Trask was sentenced in 2008 to six months in jail on two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon, according to online court records.

Rude awakening

Authorities don’t know who beat a 61-year-old man senseless and left him bleeding in a Carmichael parking lot last week.

The victim, whose identity is being withheld by sheriff’s officials, was discovered lying in an abandoned parking lot in the 6400 block of Fair Oaks Boulevard, a few miles outside of Fair Oaks, just after 3 a.m. on May 2.

Deputies were conducting a routine patrol of a business parking lot checking for suspicious activity, Ramos said.

One of the deputies saw a parked car, “which is uncommon for 3 a.m., and decided to investigate further,” Ramos added. “The officer saw some blood in the car and decided to take a walk around the business. That is when he found the victim.”

Ramos said the battered man had “lots of dried blood around his head and face area.”

He had suffered a head wound and abrasions to his knees, hand, hips and elbow.

The victim was unable to tell deputies what he was doing at the location, Ramos said.

“In addition to being injured fairly seriously, he was quite intoxicated and suffering the effects of that,” Ramos explained. “He was somewhat incoherent and lethargic when officers tried to get detailed information regarding what had occurred.”

The victim was transported to a local hospital for treatment to his injuries. No follow-ups have been done since the incident took place, Ramos said.

It's a steal

The Wal-Mart in Orangevale may be known among locals for its mocha paint job and low prices, but it has also been the site of a pair of recent unsolved crimes.

On May 1, a man entered the big box store on Greenback Lane and absconded with roughly $2,000 in merchandise. According to a sheriff’s report, the suspect, described as a 6-foot African American male between the ages of 20 and 35, grabbed display items from the shelves of the store and made his escape to a waiting black Ford Crown Victoria through an emergency exit.

An official report was still pending when Ramos was contacted for information.

“I would think it’s a safe assumption that an alarm went off, if they went through a security door,” the spokesman surmised in answer to a question. “All of their exit doors are alarmed.”

The getaway vehicle was driven by a second suspect.

A few days before, on April 28, an unknown number of suspects cut the padlock securing a door to a Wal-Mart storage shed and stole approximately 60 automobile battery cores. No one was seen, despite the incident taking place in the afternoon.