The Herald Citizen

Posted August 31, 2011 at 8:29 pm

A man was arrested Friday, August 19 after allegedly holding a woman against her will and firing a gun at her when she escaped.

Thomas Deloy Winningham, 67, of E. Hudgens St., Cookeville, is charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, vandalism, and domestic assault in the case, according to warrants taken by Cookeville Police Detective Sgt. Tammy Goolsby.

According to the warrants, Winningham had been dating the victim “off and on for a period of time.”

On Friday, he allegedly went to her home on Dodson Branch Road and used his Chevrolet Dually truck to ram her Dodge Neon car, causing damage over $500.

He also allegedly “threatened to kill (her) with a revolver if she tried to leave him,” and took her to his home on E. Hudgens Street and there told her “that he had armed the security system and would know if she tried to leave,” the detective’s warrants say.

Allegedly, Winningham had a revolver and held it in the woman’s face as he talked to her “and kept the gun by his side while holding her against her will,” the warrants say.

“When she escaped, he did fire the gun twice at her,” the warrants allege.

The warrants say that Winningham was arrested by Sgt. Jon Giezentanner and that he was booked into Putnam County Jail under a total bond of $400,000. He posted bond and was released early Saturday, August 20, jail records say.

He had an August 29 court date set.

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A man was fatally injured Saturday afternoon, August 20 while using a bush hog machine in a field on Petite Drive, police said.

Jeffrey Kevin Bowman, 44, of Cookeville, had gone to the Petite Drive area, which is located off Cresent Drive in Cookeville, to perform some clearing work, friends said.

The accident happened just after 2 p.m.

“He was mowing some fields with a bush hog,” says a brief shift summary report on file at the Cookeville Police Department. “He somehow fell off the back of the tractor and the bush hog ran him over.”

Police officers who went to the scene said Bowman suffered severe wounds to his legs and arms.

Cookeville Fire Department Capt. Daryl Blair was the first on the scene and said he found the severely injured man still conscious.

“I told him help was on the way and he said ‘okay,’” Blair said.

Blair said he immediately called for a helicopter ambulance and said Putnam Ambulance medics arrived on the scene shortly after he did.

They began treating Bowman and took him to the Cookeville Regional Medical Center emergency room and he was taken by helicopter to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Blair said.

In Nashville, he later died of his injuries.

Detailed accounts of what caused the accident were unavailable, but some unconfirmed reports indicated that a tree limb hit Bowman as he was driving the tractor/bush hog machine and knocked him off and the machine then hit him.

Some friends of the victim said they were told that Bowman’s wife, Lisa, was at the work site with him and that she called 911 and was able to help him before other help arrived.