Malicious wounding charge in March stabbing is certified to grand jury

A malicious wounding charge against a Verona man in a March party stabbing incident has been certified to a grand jury after a preliminary hearing Thursday in Augusta County General District Court.

Nathaniel Dofflemyer, 20, was arrested March 8, the day after the alleged incident, in which Dofflemyer and Casey Lowe, 20, also pressed assault and battery charges against Dustin P. Lauterback, 19, of Waynesboro.

Lauterback testified that a fight broke out between himself and Dofflemyer on March 7 in a field off Robert Turk Lane near Rockfish Road – a property near Crimora that is partially kept up by Augusta County Sheriff Randy Fisher.

After that fight ended, the two tussled again, with Lauterback testifying that Dofflemyer stabbed him in the back with a broken beer bottle.

However, Dofflemyer wrote in a court statement that Lauterback “started picking a fight with me and I told him to leave me alone.” The statement said Lauterback got in Dofflemyer’s face and started swinging his fist at Dofflemyer, “so I defended myself ... He hit me with a blunt object in my head I was knocked out for a while …”

Dofflemyer’s mother, Regina Dofflemyer, told The News Virginian back in March that her son suffered a minor concussion

Chase Hutchinson, also at the party, said he saw Dofflemyer break a beer bottle on top of a log near a bonfire before allegedly stabbing Lauterback. Hutchinson said he then saw Lauterback run off.

Witnesses to the stabbing described a melee that involved at least a half-dozen people.

However, when Dofflemyer’s defense attorney, Frank Mina, asked Lauterback who started the fight, he said he didn’t know.

“Sir, honestly, I couldn’t tell you,” Lauterback said.

Judge John Quigley, after hearing from Lauterback and Hutchinson, certified the malicious wounding charge to the grand jury, which meets July 27.