HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The man arrested after a domestic incident and nearly six-hour standoff with Hutchinson Police on Christmas Eve was back in court Tuesday morning for the formal reading of charges.
Charles Mendenhall III is charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, criminal discharge of a firearm and criminal threat and two counts of aggravated endangerment of a child, one being a 15-year-old and the other a 9-year-old.
He was taken into custody without incident Thursday after the standoff after the alleged female victim inside the residence at 707 Pierce was released unharmed.
The children were in the home when it started around 6:30 that morning, but they apparently left the home and the 15-year-old daughter reported what was going on to police.
She told police that she was awakened by the sound of dishes breaking and then saw the defendant pointing a gun to her mother’s head and, at some point, threatened to blow her mother’s brains out.
In court, Mendenhall was told to have no contact with the victims, but the main victim was in the courtroom and asked that it not be put in place. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Allen denied the request, saying it would be in place, at least for now.
Mendenhall is free on bond and his case will now move to a waiver-status docket on Jan. 27 in front of Judge Joe McCarville.