Peterborough police are charging a 28-year-old Danville man with first- and second-degree assault in an alleged stabbing incident at Rockbrook Apartments.
Police charged Selket Taylor with assault with a deadly weapon on Noah Lorden, a 22-year-old Temple resident, according to documents on file with the 8th Circuit Court in Jaffrey.
Lorden says Taylor attacked him with a steak knife while he was at the home of Ashley Hemeon in Peterborough the night of May 20. Peterborough and Jaffrey police responded to the apartment complex May 21 around 2 a.m. Lorden went to Monadnock Community Hospital early May 21 morning where he received stitches for an 8-centimeter laceration on his left forearm and a 2-centimeter cut on his left hip, according to medical records provided by Lorden.
Lorden didn’t know Taylor prior to the May 20 incident, he said. He said he was in Hemeon’s house watching “Tommy Boy” when he heard a loud banging at the front door of Hemeon’s apartment building. Attempts to reach Hemeon by phone and through messages were unsuccessful.
“She looks at me and she had this like, fear in her eyes, she’s like. ‘It’s (Taylor), he’s psycho, he’s going to come in and hurt us,'” Lorden said.
Lorden says he couldn’t tell Taylor was holding a knife until Lorden put up his arm to deflect a blow and he felt the knife cut his arm.
“He just came in the room and started swinging,” Lorden said.
Lorden alleges that Taylor then held him in a bathroom in the apartment for 30 minutes and “told me if I told anybody that he would come to my house and kill me.”
“I begged this kid for my life,” Lorden said.
Eventually, Taylor let Lorden leave.
Taylor was arraigned by video Monday at the 8th Circuit Court in Jaffrey. He has a probable cause hearing Wednesday. Felonies, such as assaults with a deadly weapon, are tried in Superior Court according to district court officials, and Wednesday’s hearing could move the case there.
Police Chief Scott Guinard would not confirm Lorden’s story, directing inquiries to the 8th Circuit Court, where Guinard said he sent an arrest record.
The narrative of a warrant report filed with the 8th Circuit Court on Monday afternoon says police responded to the apartment complex around 2:55 a.m. Police identified the occupants in the apartment as Hemeon and her 4-year-old son and learned Lorden had walked to MCH around 2:43 a.m.
Police observed a male wearing all black, later identified as Taylor, attempting to exit out of the rear window around 3:30 a.m. The narrative said he “was yelling at us something to the effect that, they said I did it, she’s drunk.”
After processing the scene, police interviewed Hemeon, who was “intoxicated, emotional, and being very evasive during questioning.” Hemeon told police that she and Lorden were in her bedroom hanging out when Taylor entered the residence, wearing white gloves and holding a knife.
Hemeon said Taylor pushed past her, entered the bedroom, and attacked Lorden. Hemeon reported she somehow left and didn’t see the assault. Police reported Hemeon had “a lot of blood on her clothing,” adding she had a cut on a finger on her left hand.
Police received a contradictory statement from Taylor — who had red scratch marks and bruising around his neck — at the police station. Taylor stated he was currently in a relationship with Hemeon, and that he entered the house using his own keys. Taylor said he was confronted by Hemeon in the hallway and a verbal altercation ensued.
Taylor alleged that he was strangled by Lorden to the point that he had passed out, later waking up in a closet. Police later found that Taylor had made three phone calls to Hemeon during the time he claimed to have been in the closet.
Taylor told police that he grabbed and threw a knife at Lorden during the attack, striking him in the arm.
Police report that Taylor did not have any blood on him and he was not found with a knife or gloves. Police later found a white flip open box cutter and approximately 50 pairs of gloves matching Hemeon’s description, in Taylor’s vehicle after he consented to a search. Police also said in the narrative that the car was “loaded with clothes.”
The narrative said Taylor did not consent to a search of his cell phone claiming “he did not want us seeing pictures he had of his penis.”
Lorden was also interviewed the night of the incident by police at Monadnock Community Hospital. Police report that Lorden was also intoxicated. A subsequent interview with police on May 23 aligns with what Lorden told the Ledger-Transcript during a recent interview.
Police also interviewed Hemeon a second time, with Hemeon giving a similar narrative to the one she gave in a previous interview. Hemeon added that she didn’t see Taylor leave, as she was cleaning up blood and tending to her child.
Taylor would later come back to the property, according to Hemeon, calling her from outside and ordering her to let him in. Hemeon told police that she let him in as she was scared. Police arrived shortly after Taylor re-entered the property.
Hemeon told police that Taylor told her he had picked the lock to enter her apartment. When police said Taylor had keys to the apartment on the night of the incident, Hemeon told police that she had lost a house and car key about a month ago and that Taylor didn’t have a set of keys for her apartment.
Police concluded the narrative by saying that “it is reasonable to believe that Taylor left the residence to hide or disposed of the knife used in the assault as well as change his clothing, explaining why he was found without any blood on him.”
Attempts to reach Taylor, who is being held at the Valley Street jail in Manchester, were also unsuccessful.
Taylor’s mugshot recently made headlines when the Associated Press reported on his May 29 arrest by the Hampstead Police Department for marijuana possession. The New York Times picked up the story and posted it under the headline: “Police Issue Annoyed Press Release After Pot Arrest.”
“During the traffic stop the officer observed Mr. Taylor to have a bag of marijuana in his cup holder. As a Public Service Announcement – It is illegal to possess recreational marijuana in New Hampshire, even if you only “smoke it in Massachusetts,” the release said.
“In his arrest photo, Taylor is sticking out his tongue while his eyes are closed and arms are crossed,” the Times reported.
In the time between the incident in the charge, a social media campaign launched around the incident, including a Facebook page with more than 350 likes called “Justice for Noah Lorden.” On the page are a link to a website peaceofmindfornoah.com and a video which recounts the incident, according to Lorden.