(Stillwater, Okla.) – A Stillwater man has been charged with assault and battery with intent to kill his girlfriend, who, he felt, “was trying to stop him from starting a movement about ‘peace and love,’” according to a police affidavit.
Robert Dean Chipman, 36, has been ordered held in the Payne County Jail on $200,000 bail pending a Sept. 18 court appearance with an attorney.
The victim, identified by police as Kelli Buchanan, 35, had been beaten and was badly injured when she was found by officers in a hallway at Chipman’s residence, an affidavit said.
Stillwater Police Detective John Paul Johnson saw the victim’s injuries at the Stillwater Medical Center emergency room on the afternoon of Sept. 3, his affidavit said.
“I noted that she had an open puncture-type wound to her chin, severely swollen and bruised face, multiple linear red-bruising marks across her neck, chest, and front shoulder area, and a bloody mouth.
“She was gurgling as she struggled to breathe, even with medical assistance, and bloody fluid had to be suctioned from her lungs periodically. She was unable to speak at that time,” the Stillwater detective wrote in an affidavit.
“I also observed Chipman while he was at the ER in police custody. He had several small scratch marks on his knees, shins, abdomen and knuckles. He also had a couple of scratches on his face and a black left eye, as well as a blistering burn to his left thigh, which he said was a result of Buchanan throwing hot coffee on him.
“Chipman had been located in Arrington Park, near 3rd and Arrington, after he called 911 himself. Chipman admitted to officers that he had assaulted, strangled, and beat Buchanan with a board in an attempt to, and with intent to, kill her,” the affidavit alleged.
“He told officers that he choked Buchanan’s neck hard enough to try and make her head ‘pop off’ and when that did not kill her, he took a nearby board and slammed it into her neck – trying to sever her neck,” the affidavit alleged.
Chipman had also admitted to Stillwater Police Officers T.J. Low and Ricardo Inciarte that “he had drunk alcohol and smoked marijuana in the past 24 hours,” the affidavit alleged.
When the detective interviewed Chipman the next day, he made similar statements “that he felt like Buchanan was trying to stop him from starting a movement about ‘peace and love’ and she was always keeping him down, so when Buchanan threw hot coffee on him, it released seven years worth of bottled-up rage,” the affidavit alleged.
“He said he launched himself at her and grabbed her by the throat, taking her to the ground. When his attempt to strangle the life out of her did not work, he grabbed the nearby board and slammed it into her neck.
“He said he compared it to trying to ‘cut the head off of the snake.’ He told me that he knew what he was doing was illegal, but felt morally justified, and competent to make the decision that he needed to end her life. He felt it was a ‘mercy killing,’” the detective alleged in his affidavit.
When a search warrant was served at Chipman’s residence that night, “we located a piece of particle board from a pre-fabricated shelving unit that was 46”x 12”x 3/4” with red stains believed to be blood. It was in the narrow hallway next to several large blood stains where Buchanan had been found earlier.
“We also located a tooth and tooth fragment in this same area. We also located a small baggy of a green leafy substance that field-tested presumptive positive for the identification of marijuana and two glass smoking pipes,” the detective alleged in his affidavit.
Four Stillwater police officers had been sent on Sept. 3 at about 2:40 p.m. to the Hampton Inn at 717 E. Hall of Fame for a welfare check, the affidavit said.
A male employee said that Chipman, who worked there, “had just admitted to strangling his girlfriend to death, as well as hitting her with a board, at their residence,” the affidavit alleged. The employee “had dropped Chipman off at a park near his home before returning to work and calling the police with this information,” the affidavit alleged.
According to a Stillwater police news release, an employee said that Chipman was acting oddly and not wearing shoes when he arrived for work.
The employee told police he gave Chipman a ride home so he could retrieve his shoes, the news release said.
When they arrived at his residence, Chipman allegedly told his co-worker he could not go back into the house because he had strangled his girlfriend and thought she was dead, the news release said.
Based on that information, police went to the 800 block of S. Leigh Street in Stillwater to conduct a welfare check on the woman, the news release said. “The officers located Buchanan in a back hallway and saw that she was covered in blood. A bloody board was seen by officers near where Buchanan was found,” a police affidavit said.
Buchanan was transported by ambulance to the Stillwater Medical Center and later transferred to the OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City, where she was listed in critical but stable condition, a police news release said.
At the time, Chipman had an outstanding arrest warrant for failing to appear in court on a previous domestic assault and battery case, the news release said.
If convicted of assault and battery with intent to kill, Chipman could be given as much as a life prison term, according to the charge filed Tuesday by Payne County Assistant District Attorney Debra Vincent.
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