Elderly Stamford man charged with taking hatchet to wife’s head

STAMFORD — An 85-year-old man uncertain about his younger wife’s fidelity was arrested after he after he allegedly struck her in the head with an hatchet over the weekend and fractured her skull, police said.

The man was charged with first-degree assault and disorderly conduct, and held at the Bridgeport Correctional Center on $100,000 bond. At his arraignment Monday, Judge Alex Hernandez issued a full protective order prohibiting him from contacting his wife. The man, who was represented by a public defender, did not make a plea to the charges. He is scheduled to return to court on Sept. 8.

Sgt. Kelly Connelly said police were sent to the man’s Glenbrook home at 11 p.m. Saturday after his wife showed up at Stamford Hospital with a head injury. The Advocate is not identifying the man, to protect the identity of the victim.

His wife, who is significantly younger, told police that her husband is “extremely jealous and is always accusing her of sleeping around,” a police report in his file said. He arrived home at about 10:30 p.m. that night and she asked him if he wanted anything to eat. She said he did not answer her, but when she was eating he grabbed a bottle of an unknown substance and began spraying it on her dinner plate, the report said.

After telling him not to contaminate her food with what was in the bottle, she said he threw the bottle at her. He then got a hatchet out of a closet, she told police. She said stood up and tried to hold the man’s hand that was holding the hatchet, but he struck her in the head anyway, saying, “I’m going to blood you up,” the police report said.

She ran out of the room and took a shower and while she was taking a picture of her wound to see how bad it was, her husband told her to stop.

“You see what you made me do. Stop taking pictures and do not call the police,” she said the man told her, and then instructed her to go to the hospital. She did, and a nurse called police when the woman told her what happened.

Police said they observed a large swollen bump on the left side of her head that was bleeding, and she also had blood on her neck and torso. A doctor at the hospital said the hatchet cracked a bone on her skull that was close to reaching the brain, according to the police report.

jnickerson@scni.com; stamfordadvocate.com/policereports