District Attorney Ted Bell, who represents McDowell and Rutherford counties, announced online that Joseph Timothy O’Buckley was recently tried and convicted of attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping, assault by strangulation, assault inflicting serious bodily injury, assault on a female, intimidating a witness and habitual felon.
District Attorney Bell said O’Buckley’s sentencing is in regard to an incident where he and a woman he knew were staying at a motel in Marion. Authorities said O’Buckley locked the victim in a room and barricaded the door, refusing to let her leave. For 11 hours, he repeatedly beat and strangled the victim as he told her that he was going to kill her and that she was not going to make it out of the room alive.
Eventually O’Buckley fell asleep and the victim fled the room to run across the street to a residence for help.
EMS, the McDowell County Sheriff’s Office and Marion Police Department responded to the scene. The victim was rushed to McDowell Mission Hospital for her severe injuries and O’Buckley was taken into custody.
Authorities said that after being charged, O’Buckley continued to call the victim from the McDowell County jail and demanded that she not testify against him, threatening to kill her if she did.
O’Buckley’s trial lasted three days and included several hours of testimony from the victim. At the conclusion of the trial the jury found O’Buckley guilty of each of the crimes he was charged with initially. Resident Superior Court Judge Thomas Davis sentenced O’Buckley to 37 years in prison.
“We are very thankful for the trust and immense courage the victim has shown throughout this process, to the witnesses who came forward to support her, to McDowell County EMS, McDowell Mission Hospital, McDowell County Sheriff’s Office, and Marion Police Department for their work in this case, and to the jury for delivering justice for the victim,” Bell said in his press release online.
