Dateline: September 6, 2001

Woman says trucker assaulted her  

Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

The quick response of deputies in Donley and Gray counties led to the arrest of a man suspected of assaulting a woman last week.

Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn said a 31-year-old Farmington, New Mexico, woman told Gray County Deputy Jim McDonald that a truck driver had attempted to sexually assault her in his vehicle. Donley County Chief Deputy Randy Bond was dispatched to the mile marker 124, the Clarendon exit on Interstate 40, where he met McDonald and the complainant.

According to Blackburn, the truck driver picked up the woman in Amarillo and pulled off on the access road inside Donley County. The man reportedly held a knife to the woman’s throat while he tore her clothes and attempted to assault her. The woman managed to get away, and the trucker drove off.

Deputy McDonald saw the woman running along the highway and stopped to help her.

The woman gave the deputies a detailed description of the assailant and his truck, which was put out to area law enforcement agencies. The truck was later stopped by the Beckham County Sheriff’s Department in Oklahoma.

The driver was held by Oklahoma authorities until Sheriff Blackburn arrived Friday and arrested him. Michael Lyn Smith, age 39, of Cleveland, Georgia, was charged with aggravated assault and returned to Clarendon where he was arraigned by Justice of the Peace Jimmy Johnson. At presstime he was still incarcerated in the Donley County Jail.

“I would like to thank the Gray County Sheriff’s Office and Deputy Jim McDonald,” Blackburn said. “If not for the prompt response of Deputy McDonald and [Donley County] Deputy Randy Bond, we could not have caught this guy. He would have just been gone.”

Blackburn said the subject denies the woman’s charges but has a lengthy criminal history.