Man arrested on child abuse and strangulation charges

Bluefield Daily Telegraph - 6/22/2018

June 23--PRINCETON -- A Mercer County man was arrested and arraigned Friday on charges which included strangling a 16-year-old juvenile and trying to smash his thumb with a hammer after arguing about a cellphone.

Billy Ray Rumberg, 36, was arraigned before Magistrate Susan Honaker on charges of child abuse resulting in injury and strangulation. Honaker set a $50,000 cash-only bond and remanded him to the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver.

The case started April 16 when Rumburg went to the Mercer County Sheriff's Department and filed a walk-in complaint about a runaway 16-year-old male juvenile, according to Cpl. M.S. Horn. He had left his home near Bluefield on April 13, but had been advised to wait until Monday, April 16 to see if he showed up for classes at Montcalm High School, according to Horn's incident report. Family friends and acquaintances told Rumburg that the juvenile was safe, but "nobody would give them a possible location for him."

Horn said he contacted the school April 16 and was told that the juvenile "wasn't present for school...they also advised this wasn't like him that he liked school and rarely missed." Horn then contacted a list of friends and acquaintances, and was told that Rumberg had beaten the juvenile earlier and that "he needed to get out of there." Horn was then told that the juvenile was supposed to seek help from a Child Protection Services (CPS) worker at the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) office in Princeton.

In the report, Horn said a CPS worker, Carla Bragg, later contacted him about an April 13 incident involving the juvenile. Horn interviewed the juvenile, who said that after an argument, Rumberg used a hammer to break his cellphone.

Rumberg allegedly asked the juvenile which thumb he liked to text with, and told him to lay it on the home's porch because "he was going to smash it." The juvenile complied, closed his eyes, then twitched and pulled his thumb away, causing Rumberg to miss. The juvenile stated that "he felt the impact of the hammer striking the porch, it was very hard."

The juvenile then said that he and Rumberg argued in the house where Rumberg grabbed him by the throat and "choked slammed him onto the living room floor, where he continued to choke him and hit his head on the floor."

"He stated when he was being choked he couldn't breath," Horn said in the report.

While the juvenile was on the floor, Rumberg "tried to stomp him in the face, so he started rolling and blocking his foot." The juvenile said he was then told to leave the house and put some clothes in a duffle bag.

Child abuse resulting in injury is a felony carrying a possible penalty of one to five years in prison. Strangulation, which is also a felony, also has a possible penalty of one to five years imprisonment.

-- Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

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