He said he would not have killed her. He said he was just tired from work. He said he was frustrated, and only trying to scare her.
That’s why, Alan Kith told police, he pointed a Glock at his fiance’s head and threatened to kill her as he choked her “a little” on the bed, as the two had been arguing over a baby monitor’s camera being off. The couple have a young child in common. The incident took place Friday evening.
Kith, a 34-year-old resident of 3 Prairie Lane in Palm Coast, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a third-degree felony, and domestic-violence battery, a misdemeanor. The child did not witness the confrontation, nor did Kith’s mother, who was also in the house. She saw the argument begin in the kitchen downstairs, where she was, and heard its escalation upstairs.
Kith told Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies that the alleged victim was irate over the baby monitor and began yelling at him as soon as he got home from work. During the argument, Kith told deputies, he went to the lock box where the weapon is kept, took it out, pushed his fiancée on the bed, put his hand around her throat, though not to the point of constricting her airways, and pointed the gun at her head. He told her he would kill her right then.
Though he got off his fiancée, enabling her to leave the room, when she returned, he told her he would kill her and her father. She called her father, who advised to call 911. Kith’s mother told deputies that both her son and the alleged victim threatened to kill each other, though she never saw them in a physical altercation nor did she recall seeing the firearm.
Deputies recovered the firearm from a laundry basket at the foot of the stairs, with a 30-round magazine and a round in the chamber.
For every one of the 39,000 deaths by gunshot in a year in the United States, twice as many people are shot and injured either intentionally or by accident and survive.
Kith was booked at the Flagler County jail on $15,000 bond, which he posted today, after spending the weekend in jail. A judge ordered all his firearms surrendered to the Sheriff’s Office and imposed a no-contact order with Kith’s fiancée pending the outcome of the case.
R.S. says
And not everyone can be stopped in time; that’s why it’s criminally insane to allow firearms in the hands of private citizens.
Ed says
So no US “private citizen” should be allowed to have a gun?
Attention all thugs, bad guys, criminals and law abiding citizens….
Concerned Citizen says
Bonds are getting ridiculously lower on serious charges. Why not just let them out on OR Bonds?
On any violent charge it should be an automatic no bond. Until First Appearance. At least then there’s a chance for both parties to cool down more. And for the victim to have an opportunity to escape if needed. Too many times we are seeing quick releases. And often a repeated offense against the victim.
Time for Judges to start taking crime more serious in this county. Catch and release doesn’t work.
Ray W. says
Please reread the article, focusing closely on the paragraph detailing the bond that was set when Kith was booked into the jail, with an emphasis on the fact that bond was set at the time of booking, not during a later 1st Appearance.
A standardized bond schedule, published by the chief judge, is used by law enforcement officers throughout the four counties that comprise the 7th circuit. Although I retired years ago, the amounts set in this case appear to be the same as those set by the bond schedule that existed for years before my retirement. When an officer swears to the existence of probable cause in an arrest affidavit, he or she sets out each of the charges and then applies the applicable bond amount set by the bond schedule to each charge. The 1st Appearance judge then reviews the arrest affidavit for sufficiency and can raise or lower the bond amount. In this case, the judge apparently did not change the bond amount but he or she added restrictions related to the charges.
There does not appear to be any evidence to support your claim of an ever-lowering of bonds.
I don’t disagree with your claim that sometimes defendants who post bond violate court orders to stay away from victims, but so long as we have a constitutional form of government, bonds will exist. Yes, there are many in our great country who desire a more autocratic form of government and are willing to abandon our experiment in a liberal democratic Constitutional republic to get what they want, but so long as local political figures are willing to take to the local airwaves and ask when people can begin beheading Democrats, I am not willing to advocate for any modifications to our Bill of Rights.
There are people among us who are willing to kill in order to obtain the form of government they desire. Such people existed at the time of our founding. In the first volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published in 1776 and a sensation in its time, contains an account of the Greens vs. the Blues in Constantinople before the fall of the eastern capital of the Roman Empire. I forget which color slaughtered the other, but one political party held a rally in a stadium, according to Gibbon. Its opposition surrounded the stadium and slaughtered some 20,000 of its political enemies. When Madison wrote of his opinion that partisan members of faction were “pestilential” to reason, did he have the Greens vs. the Blues in mind? There is no doubt in my mind that Madison was influenced by Gibbon’s work, as he was considered in his day and even today to have been perhaps the best educated and most intellectual of our founding fathers. He was the one tasked with writing our Constitution, which was then published and debated and ratified. A four-term charter member of the House of Representatives, he led the effort to pass the Bill of Rights.
Remember, at the earliest moments in the formation of what is now known as the conservative movement, the English Parliament deposed a king and published its own Bill of Rights, with one of those rights being the right to a reasonable bond. No excessive bonds for Englishmen some 90 years before their American cousins deposed their own king and went on to ratify our Constitution. The first Congress elected under that Constitution then published its own Bill of Rights, including the right to a reasonable bond. No excessive bonds for us, too.
Reasonable minds may differ on what a bond should be, so I am not saying you are wrong. Perhaps the bond schedule should be adjusted, but that is an issue for the chief judge. I am only pointing out that there is no evidence in this article to support your claim of ever-lowering bonds. Our judges have always taken crime seriously. Please stop denigrating them when they follow their oath of office. Their main purpose is to uphold the Constitution, which they swear to uphold upon taking office. Asking any judge to violate that oath is unreasonable. Please adjust your thoughts on this issue. Intellectual rigor demands that much from you. Misinformation neither bolsters your credibility nor strengthens your points. I expect much from you. We all suffer when you do less than your best.
JimBob says
Thank God DeSantis has freed up our God given Second Amendment rights. The last thing a working man needs to hear at day’s end is a nagging woman. Nothing preserves domestic tranquility like a well oiled Glock.
Em says
This is a person problem, not a gun problem. Stop making excuses for people with anger issues thanks to society deeming it okay and making excuses for deranged individuals by crying gun safety
wow says
If he points a GUN at someone because he is tired this is a GUN problem. Sheeesh.
R.S. says
Of course. You can’t fix or delete people; you can fix or delete guns.
Laurel says
Em: Jimbob is being sarcastic. Please do tell how you would explain a “gun problem.”
Mary Lumus says
Father of the year..
Dave says
Until our courts get tough on crime, these jerks will just keep on. There is no deterrent to not commit a crime these days. One gets a low fine, or a slap on the wrist and they keep on. And this has been going on for a long time since the sentencing reforms since the 1970s and the Statewide sentencing guidelines became effective on October 1, 1983. These guidelines provide a range of recommended sentences for all felony cases. So its long before DeSantis.
John says
Males only become strong when they’re holding a gun otherwise they are little boys.
Land of no turn signals says says
A lot of baby moma’s being threatened lately.
Wow says
Apparently he hasn’t read Guns for Dummies. You don’t point a gun at someone unless you plan to shoot. Nice to know all the wackos are armed.
Angela Smith says
How can we continue to ignore the level of hate in Florida? We have the most hate groups per capita. The hate is constately brewing in states male egos. They beleive they are right and do not even have to debate the issue. Just give him more guns so he can take away the rights for her again, and again in our state of Florida.