By Joe Johnson
A teenager from Walton County was arrested last week for allegedly kidnapping his girlfriend from a Halloween party in Athens where he assaulted several people and threatened partygoers with gunfire.
According to the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, events leading up to the early Wednesday morning arrest of 18-year-old Monroe resident Nicholas Malachi Jackson were as follows:
He had gone to the party on Briarcliff Road with his girlfriend, 20-year-old Kaitlin Fischer. At one point and after they both had drunk alcohol, Fischer began avoiding Jackson and went upstairs to hide.
The teen demanded to know where his girlfriend was and he told others that if they didn’t bring her to him he would shoot up the party.
When Fischer came out from hiding Jackson dragged her to his car and forced her to get in, then held her in a chokehold to prevent her from leaving. He punched several females who tried to intervene.
Local police issued an alert for Jackson after he left the scene with Fischer in the car.
Officers with the Monroe Police Department took Jackson into custody upon stopping his car as it neared the residence where he and Fischer lived.
After Jackson was transferred into the custody of Athens police he was transported to the county jail, where breath testing by an Intoxilyzer 9000 indicated that he had more than seven times the legal amount of alcohol in his system.
The police brought criminal charges based on the breath test, statements from witnesses at the party, and officer observations of Jackson’s behavior from reviewing Ring camera footage.
Jackson was subsequently booked into the jail on charges of DUI, kidnapping, false imprisonment, two counts of battery, making terroristic threats, and public intoxication.
Jackson was denied bail by a Magistrate Court judge; a judge from Superior Court has scheduled a bail hearing for November 12.