Man on probation arrested for slashing roommate’s throat with a blade

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Charles Ivan Griffith II, 35, was arrested last night and charged with aggravated battery after allegedly cutting his roommate’s throat with a blade, leaving a 6-inch wound.

At about 9:20 p.m. on December 27, Gainesville Police Department officers responded to an apartment in the Phoenix neighborhood and reportedly found Griffith outside, standing over the victim; both men were covered in blood. Griffith had swelling to one side of his face, and the victim had a six-inch puncture wound on his neck and blood in his mouth.

Post Miranda, the victim reportedly said he and his roommate Griffith had been drinking together when Griffith became angry and started punching him and choking him. The victim said he fought back, and after Griffith “tapped out” of the fight, the victim started to go to a neighbor’s apartment, but Griffith came up behind him and stabbed him in the neck, then followed him outside and pushed him to the ground, where he punched him about 20 times. The attack stopped after neighbors intervened.

Post Miranda, Griffith reportedly said he and the victim had engaged in a physical fight inside their apartment and said the fight was “serious and not horse-playing.” He said the victim hit him in the face multiple times at one point, and he believed the victim had stabbed him in the eye, but an officer reported that medical personnel said Griffith did not have any puncture wounds. Griffith said after he believed he was stabbed in the eye, they both left the apartment to get help from a neighbor, and then he “blacked out” and does not remember what happened next except that he may have cut the victim’s throat.

A witness said Griffith chased the victim, pushed him to the ground, and punched and kicked him while yelling, “I’m going to kill you.” A second witness said Griffith was standing over the victim, punching and kicking him about 20 times.

The officer reported that the victim was transported to a local hospital and immediately taken into surgery. The cut to his neck was about six inches long, from the front of his neck to the left side. The victim also required stitches inside his mouth. Griffith was also transported to an emergency room for treatment.

Officers reported finding blood throughout the apartment. A blue multicolored switchblade was found inside the apartment and collected as evidence; a pocketknife with a blade about 4 inches long was found outside a neighbor’s apartment where Griffith and the victim had fought, and it was also collected as evidence. However, officers do not know whether either weapon was used to cut the victim.

Griffith has been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. He has two felony convictions (two violent) and one misdemeanor conviction (non-violent); he was sentenced to four years of probation for threatening two people with a pocketknife in 2020, and although his probation was scheduled to terminate in October 2025, the Department of Corrections still lists him as actively on probation. Judge Jonathan Ramsey ordered him held without bail pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s office to hold him without bail until trial; if the judge denies the motion, bail will be set at that hearing.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.