Auto dealer's head injuries severe – for a second time

Ray Easley clinging to life after beating

Robinson – No one is really sure what led to a severe attack on an area auto dealer found unconscious in his Robinson home, his head bloodied, his skull fractured.

Matthew Ray Easley of the 800 block of Robinson Rd. was last seen on Tuesday. A visitor to his home on Friday found him with head injuries so severe he remains hospitalized with skull fractures.

It is the second such attack Mr. Easley has suffered.

In August of 2010, two men, one black, the other, who was driving a dented white Toyata pickup, white, arrived at his place of business with some auto wheels. An unnamed witness saw them fleeing a short time later as the black man washed blood from his hands with water from a bottle he carried in the vehicle.(click here for a previous report)

A knife blade penetrated his victim's skull deeply enough that he suffered a brain injury. He was hospitalized for four days at that time.

A Waco police officer apprehended Steven Ray Johnson, 41, and arrested him in connection with the assault based on an affidavit of probable cause. A magistrate charged him with attempted capital murder and set his bond at $100,000.

Four days later, he was a free man, released on a personal recognizance bond requiring no bond fee and a chattel against his property of $100,000.

The man who was driving the pickup, who has remained unnamed, said he picked up “Stevie Jo” at an east Waco location and drove him to the Robinson car lot.

Police arrested Clinton Douglas Mills, 30, of Hewitt, late Friday night following the discovery of Mr. Easley. They charged him with aggravated assault; a magistrate set his bond for that offense at $17,000. According to news reports, Chief Rusty Smith of the Robinson Police Department said it is unknown if the two attacks are related.

At first, Chief Smith refused to name the victim. He told a newsman from the Waco “Tribune-Herald” that the matter is confidential and the subject of an “ongoing investigation.”(click here for a previous report)

Newsmen from other organizations learned the victim's name later in the weekend.

In the case of the first attack on Mr. Easley, Chief Smith refused for several weeks to release an offense and arrest report.

He continued to refuse to release the public information, even after a representative of the Open Records Division of the Attorney General's Office advised him that the “first page” offense and arrest information is public, unprivileged information, available to one and all, regardless of affiliation with a news organization.(click here for a previous report)

So it goes.

- The Legendary