Two Ossipee men accused of robbing a home in the south end of Concord during a botched drug deal early Tuesday morning will remain in jail because of the danger they pose to the community, two Merrimack County judges ruled Wednesday.
Nathaniel Wayne Gibbs, 36, and Elias Ross Young, 21, are accused of robbing a Dunklee Street home about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday and threatening the person inside with knives. They faced charges in separate arraignments with different judges Wednesday.
The victim, a 24-year-old man who Gibbs said they were buying drugs from, was not wearing pants when police arrived after a neighbor called 911, according to a Concord police affidavit. He told police the men had beaten him so badly that he lost control of his bowels.
Police noted the victim’s lips were bloodied, there were marks on his neck, and a swelling welt above his left eye. He was treated at Concord Hospital and released, though Concord police Lt. Sean Ford told the Monitor on Tuesday that he will be closely monitored given his serious injuries.
Police said they found blood on the clothes of both Gibbs and Young. Police reported finding a “small amount of blood and several knives” on the kitchen floor. A knife was later found in one of Young’s pockets.
Police also found the victim’s wallet in Gibbs’s possession when he was arrested. Gibbs told police he thought it was his and grabbed it as they left, according to the affidavit.
Police say the victim knew Young prior to the incident and that Gibbs and Young were invited into the home. The victim told police he was expecting Young to come over that morning to “smoke some marijuana and hang out.”
After going inside, the victim told police that Gibbs put him in a headlock and began choking him. The victim said he couldn’t breath and that his vision had gone dark. He told police that both men hit him and threatened him with knives, and that he believed Gibbs and Young were going to kill him.
Gibbs offered his own statement to police, saying that Young and the victim got into a verbal argument and he stepped in when the victim punched Young. Gibbs told police he restrained the victim and told Young to “grab an orange prescription bottle … and put it in his pocket.”
In a separate interview with police, Young said that the victim “went nuts” and threw a punch at Gibbs but missed. Young says he intervened and began hitting the victim.
After leaving the home, Gibbs and Young got into a Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck driven by a woman. The woman, who says she did not go inside, told police that she drove Gibbs and Young to Concord from Ossipee and “did not know anything bad was going to happen.”
Gibbs, Young and the woman were stopped by police as they pulled out of the driveway. The woman, who was not charged, later told police that Young had told her to “keep driving” when the officer signaled for them to stop.
In court Wednesday, Megan DeVorsey, a prosecutor with the County Attorney’s office, described the incident as “a violent attack in the dead of night” to both judges before they ordered Gibbs and Young be held under preventative detention.
Public defense attorneys for Gibbs and Young noted that neither appears to have a heavy criminal history aside from misdemeanors. Police came across an unrelated warrant for Young’s arrest out of Center Harbor charging him with simple assault.
Police ask anyone with information to contact Lt. Sean Ford at 230-3728 or the Concord Regional Crimeline at 226-3100.