A Florida man was arrested and placed in prison after ramming a hatchet into the head of a woman he was staying with before Thanksgiving.
Doughtery fled the scene before law enforcement arrived. Detectives later tracked him down near Gainesville, about 150 miles north of St. Petersburg.
Just before 3 a.m. Thanksgiving morning, an Alachua County deputy pulled Doughterty over and took him into custody, where he was charged with one count of second-degree attempted murder.
The woman’s family prepared to take her off life support Saturday.
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said, “Deputies found the 56-year-old woman with a hatchet protruding from her head when they responded to a call about an attempted murder at the Silver Lake Mobile Home Park in St. Petersburg just after 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.”
Authorities later identified the woman as Lisa Rogers Eaton. They were surprised to find she was miraculously still alive and taken to a nearby hospital, where she was treated for life-threatening injuries.
Eaton was in stable condition in the hospital, but her younger sister told the station they were preparing to take her off a respirator on Saturday.
Donna Voye said, “Our family and friends will be gathering to be with Lisa to pray and say their goodbyes. Lisa was a good woman and would help anyone. She’ll give you anything you want.”
Apparently, Lisa kindness extended out to allowing Michael Doughtery, 40, to stay with her and her husband after he lost his job.
“We don’t understand it,” Voye said. “We can’t understand it because she wouldn’t hurt anybody. No family should ever get a call like we got telling us that or them that their family member is brutally attacked as our little sister was.”
Doughtery was being being held at Alachua County jail and will be transferred to Pinellas County Jail.
