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Road Rage? Hephzibah Woman Shot by Lunatic Driver with a History of Violence!

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A Hephzibah passenger was shot in both of her legs Monday by a lunatic driver who pulled up to her friend’s vehicle at 4 in the morning and shot at them, authorities said.

Authorities say it could be a road rage incident.

CODY-3Dominique Nathanial Cody, a 22-year-old violent crook with a history of arrests, was charged Monday in the shooting. The victim, 33-year-old Kelly Torres, was being treated at Augusta University Medical Center.

Cody began harassing another vehicle on Willis Foreman Road at 4 a.m. Monday, trying to get beside the vehicle in his Jeep Patriot. So the driver, Chris Beatrice, pulled over but Cody came beside him and shot into his Honda Accord, striking the female passenger, a report says.

After the shooting, Beatrice followed the suspect for a license plate number and called 911 while he was following the Jeep. A deputy soon found the vehicle and chased him until Cody jumped from the Jeep near Goshen Lake Clubhouse and ran. He was eventually captured and charged with aggravated assault and two counts of weapon possession.

If history repeats itself, Cody will get off light for the crime. He’s only 22 but has a long history of aggravated assault cases that were eventually pled down to lesser crimes with probationary sentences in every case:

  • In February 2014, Cody was charged with aggravated assault and weapon possession. Four months later, he was allowed to plead guilty to reckless conduct and pointing a gun at another person. Judge James G. Blanchard Jr. gave him two years of probation and 200 hours of community service.
  •  In October 2015, Cody was again charged with aggravated assault and criminal damage to property in Richmond County. Prosecutors waited over a year to bring him to court and reduced the charges in 2017 to simple assault and criminal trespass. This time, Judge Sheryl Jolly gave him two more years of probation.
  • In November 2015, he was charged with criminal damage to property in Columbia County and eventually got probation.
  • In January 2016, while he was awaiting trial for aggravated assault, he was charged with obstruction of a law enforcement officer in Richmond County, running from cops as they tried unsuccessfully to bring him down twice with a Taser. A deputy finally had to wrestle Cody to the ground, a sheriff’s report says. Prosecutors simply dismissed that arrest a year later.

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Greg Rickabaugh
Greg Rickabaugh
Greg Rickabaugh is an award-winning crime reporter in the Augusta-Aiken area with experience writing for The Augusta Chronicle, The Augusta Press and serving as publisher of The Jail Report. Rickabaugh is a 1994 graduate of the University of South Carolina and has appeared on several crime documentaries on the Investigation Discovery channel.
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