Bladen Co. man charged after Raleigh cameraman attacked with cane

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Deputies with the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office say a man is facing assault charges after attacking a television news cameraman.

Investigators say Donald Hales, 67, is charged with assault inflicting serious bodily injury. He was given a $50,000 bond and placed on house arrest, deputies said.

Deputies say Hales attacked Jay Jennings, 57, Tuesday afternoon on NC 242 just north of NC 53 while Jennings was shooting a documentary on the Joseph Sledge case for WRAL-TV in Raleigh. They say Jennings was at the home where two women were murdered in the 1970s when he was approached by Hales, who told him he had 45 seconds to get off the property. Jennings told investigators as he gathered his equipment and walked toward his van, Hales hit him from behind with a cane.

Jennings was sent to the hospital where he had to get several stitches in his head.

Sledge was convicted of those murders, but exonerated of the deaths earlier this year by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission.