Decorah man held in attacks on girlfriend, her mother

A Decorah man faces an attempted murder charge and other counts after he struck the mother of his child and then violently attacked her mom, who had confronted him after spotting blood on her daughter’s dress, according to authorities and court records.

Hunter Thomas Youngblood, 22, turned himself in Monday to the Winneshiek County Sheriff’s Office and was charged with attempted murder and willful injury — causing bodily injury, both felonies; first-degree harassment, an aggravated misdemeanor; assault causing bodily injury or mental illness, and domestic abuse assault — injury or mental illness, both serious misdemeanors.

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According to a criminal complaint, Youngblood and his girlfriend were in a vehicle Sept. 21 when he struck her in the face and upper body. Court records say they shared a child and had been in a relationship for about two years and lived together.

After the initial assault, the two went to a home in Freeport where the woman’s mother was. The older woman confronted Youngblood over the blood she saw on her daughter’s dress and the injuries. Youngblood responded by attempting to strangle the mother, with “his hands wrapped around her neck and he was pushing his thumbs into her throat with enough force to restrict blood and air flow,” a criminal complaint states. He then threatened to kill her.

The daughter ran out of the house to go call authorities, the complaint states, and Youngblood followed — leading to an even more chaotic scene. The daughter ran back into the house and secured the front door. The two women tried to hold the back door shut, but Youngblood burst in, the complaint says.

He attacked the mother a second time, slamming her head into the floor, records show. She escaped to a bedroom.

A Winneshiek County sheriff’s deputy responded and found Youngblood on the kitchen floor, “with apparent self-inflicted stab wounds to the abdomen,” the complaint states.

The Sheriff’s Office said Youngblood was airlifted to a hospital. A warrant for his arrest was issued Sept. 24. It was not clear when he was released from the hospital or not arrested earlier, but the Sheriff’s Office said he turned himself in Monday.

He was ordered held in jail on a $75,000 cash-only bail, records show.