A recently released affidavit has revealed details about the arrest of a man whose wife was found brutally beaten to death in their Downtown Dallas apartment.
When Jenean Chapman’s body was discovered during a welfare check on September 26, the injuries covering her face, neck, and body made her hardly recognizable to her family.
“It’s hard to wrap our brains around the fact that she’s dead because it’s like, it didn’t look like her,” the victim’s sister Crystal Marshall told Fox 4 KDFW.
Citing “domestic issues” with her estranged husband James Michael Patrick, the 46-year-old had taken time off of work on September 20, the affidavit reveals. Yet with no news from her days later, those close to her grew worried and contacted the authorities. Dallas police identified Patrick as a suspect and tracked him down in a hospital in Austin.
The couple had married this summer in Patrick’s home state of Texas after years of an on-and-off relationship.
Yet an affidavit viewed by Fox 4 referred to an interview with one of Chapman’s sisters in which she described a recent incident where the suspect had allegedly choked the victim until she was unconscious.
As far as Chapman’s family knew, these problems were relatively new.
“We knew that they had arguments, and that’s typical in a relationship. It was a bit toxic, but we would never think it would be taken to this extreme where my sister would ultimately lose her life,” explained Chapman’s sister Nicole Marshall, according to Fox 4.
The affidavit also disclosed that shortly before his arrest, Patrick had been seeking medical treatment after “an adverse reaction to an unknown substance.” The doctor had apparently seen a bloody, black fingernail stuck into him during the examination.
“I got in a fight with my wife,” Patrick had allegedly explained to the doctor. He is now being held on a $1 million bond at Travis County jail.
The murder occurred in The National on Elm Street apartment complex, which is situated in Council Member Paul Ridley’s District 14.
Several districts located in Downtown Dallas have seen surges in crime, especially auto theft and assaults, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
The Metroplex Civic & Business Association recently found that there were roughly 12 times more assault offenses committed in Downtown Dallas than in neighboring downtown Fort Worth in August, with the Dallas Police Department logging 85 incidents compared to downtown Fort Worth’s seven.
Downtown Fort Worth reportedly has a special neighborhood police unit and private security guards working to keep the neighborhood safe, whereas the Dallas Police Department labors under a longstanding officer shortage. While a city analysis recommends having three officers for every 1,000 residents, which puts an adequate staffing level at around 4,000 sworn personnel, Dallas is currently policed by a force of fewer than 3,200 officers.