September 29, 1996

Woman doused
with gasoline
and stabbed

ROBERT MOHL and
LANCE MARTIN
Herald Staff

	WELDON -- Friday morning was a night of horror for the residents of Carolina
Rest Home Road when a woman was chased, stabbed, and doused with gasoline by an
attacker.
	Alexander Alston Jr., 32, of 105 Pine St. in Garysburg was arrested and
charged with two counts of first-degree burglary, one count of first-degree
assault with intent to kill (causing bodily harm), assault on government
officials, resisting arrest and injury to personal property.
	According to police, Tammy Ann Martin of Route 2, Box 381 was attacked in her
trailer by Alston at 2:30 a.m. Friday. Alston, her boyfriend, threw a cinder
block through her window, broke in and attacked her with a lockblade, police
said.
	After stabbing her in the stomach, the assailant threw gasoline on her and
threatened to light her on fire. Martin's three children, ranging from 2 to 12,
were in the trailer at the time.
	Wounded, the helpless mother was able to escape to a neighbor, 400 yards down
the road. But Alston followed her to the home of Jance Moody, police said.
	Alston broke in and cornered Martin who was hiding in a closet, police said.
Dumping more gasoline on her, and the clothes around her, he repeated his threat
to light her ablaze, police said.
	Moody then confronted Alston, who ran out of the house where three deputies
were arriving, police said. Alston was subdued after a brief struggle, police
said.
	When approached at his mobile home Saturday, Moody who was getting into his
BMW to leave, had no comment on the stabbing.
	"We'll leave it blank," he said.
	Martin, who could not be reached, was taken to Halifax Memorial Hospital and
released at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
	Taking part in the arrest were Deputies C.E. Carroll, Link Nixon and Sgt. Van
Barfield. The investigating officer was Detective Bill Wheeler.
	Alston was being held on bail on $75,000 bond after a Friday court
appearance. His next appearance will be Oct. 25.
	A man who lives in the Sandy Acres Subdivision near the cluster of trailers,
said he was shocked by the stabbing and believed Alston and Martin were close.
	"Everytime you would see them together," said the man, who declined to give
his name. "I thought they were tight."
	The man said he never suspected Alston to be a violent person. The
neighborhood, which is mixed with mobile homes and Sandy Acres' neat, brick homes
is usually quiet, he said.
	There's not a lot of trouble here," he said.