By Staff reports
A Putnam County man was in jail Monday after allegedly choking a female relative and punching a child.
Richard Brandon Gay, 35, from Bancroft is accused of stepping on the woman's throat until she passed out, and assaulting a child at a home in Poca on Jan. 28.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Putnam County Magistrate Court, Gay assaulted the female family member, choked her, spit in her face and bit her. A juvenile family member told investigators Gay also "clotheslined and punched" another child in the home.
Gay was charged with strangulation, child abuse causing injury and domestic battery. He was being held Monday afternoon at the Western Regional Jail on $50,000 bond.