HOLT — A 30-year-old man has been charged with breaking into a home Saturday evening and attacking a couple with an axe handle.
Douglas Scott Martin, who lives in Milton, knocked on the door of a home on Wallman Lane shortly after 9:30 p.m., according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.
Arlie Grice and his wife, Joyce, were in bed.
When Arlie got up to answer the door, Martin rushed in.
Martin had his face painted black and was wearing camouflage and a hooded sweatshirt. He was armed with an axe handle and a butcher knife.
He beat Arlie to the ground using the axe handle and stood over him demanding money, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Arlie told investigators that he recognized Martin’s voice.
Martin took Joyce into the back bedroom and hit her with the ax handle. Then Arlie armed himself with his own axe handle and the two began to fight.
Joyce was able to escape and call law enforcement.
When deputies arrived, Martin had fled. He left behind the axe handle, a glove and a bloody shirt.
K-9 units with the Sheriff’s Office began tracking him.
He was located later, without a shirt, in the parking lot of Brown’s Grocery Store on West Highway 90.
He told investigators that the home invasion was a “prank,” the Sheriff’s Office reported.
Arlie, 52, was taken to North Okaloosa Medical Center for treatment. He suffered injuries to his head and torso and had a punctured lung.
Martin was charged with armed home invasion robbery, two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and felony violation of probation.
He was being held in the Okaloosa County Jail on Sunday with no bond set.