The trial of a man accused of attacking a woman in a Statesboro retail store bathroom in 2005 begins today. Stephen Mark Hall, 26, Garfield, faces Bulloch County Superior Court Judge F. Gates Peed today as a jury hears details about the ordeal.
Hall was charged with aggravated assault with intent to rape and murder regarding the Oct. 14, 2005 attack, when he assaulted a 41-year-old woman in the bathroom at Wal-Mart in Statesboro.
Hall accosted the woman and her two-year-old grandchild in a bathroom near the rear of the store, police said. When she screamed and fought him, customers and employees came to her rescue, prompting Hall to flee.
He sprayed several customers, including children, with pepper spray as he ran through the store, but United States Marine Corps reservist Kevin Doncaster, 29, Tucker, gave chase and held him at gunpoint in the parking lot until police arrived.
Hall also faces kidnapping, battery and terroristic acts charges; felony charges of first degree cruelty to children; two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime; two counts of carrying a concealed weapon (brass knuckles and a knife) and carrying deadly weapons at a public gathering as well as possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.
Hall has a criminal history including serving time for assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and larceny in North Carolina, as well as charges of felony theft by taking, entering auto and theft by taking motor vehicle in Bulloch County.
Hall was charged with aggravated assault with intent to rape and murder regarding the Oct. 14, 2005 attack, when he assaulted a 41-year-old woman in the bathroom at Wal-Mart in Statesboro.
Hall accosted the woman and her two-year-old grandchild in a bathroom near the rear of the store, police said. When she screamed and fought him, customers and employees came to her rescue, prompting Hall to flee.
He sprayed several customers, including children, with pepper spray as he ran through the store, but United States Marine Corps reservist Kevin Doncaster, 29, Tucker, gave chase and held him at gunpoint in the parking lot until police arrived.
Hall also faces kidnapping, battery and terroristic acts charges; felony charges of first degree cruelty to children; two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime; two counts of carrying a concealed weapon (brass knuckles and a knife) and carrying deadly weapons at a public gathering as well as possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.
Hall has a criminal history including serving time for assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and larceny in North Carolina, as well as charges of felony theft by taking, entering auto and theft by taking motor vehicle in Bulloch County.