A Bluffton man faces most severe charge of domestic violence. Here’s why, police say

A Bluffton man with a history of committing violent crimes since at least the early 1990s is still in custody after being arrested July 8, according to the Beaufort County Detention Center jail log.

Cedrick Bernard Greene, 45, was booked into the Beaufort County Detention Center facing four charges from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and one from the Bluffton Police Department, the jail log said.

The charges include domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature, use of vehicle without permission, possession of a firearm by a violent felon, petit larceny from the sheriff’s office, and first-degree domestic violence from the Bluffton Police Department.

Greene’s total bond is $92,125.

He threatened her. She jumped out of a moving car

The four charges from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office were a result of an incident that occurred on June 3.

That day, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office deputies met with Greene’s on-and-off again girlfriend who jumped out of a moving car Greene was driving after he threatened to kill her with her own pistol, the Sheriff’s Office report said.

Greene, the father of the woman’s child, and the woman exchanged text messages about “sleeping with different people” after he continued driving her car without her permission, the report said.

When he brought the car to her, he refused to let her drive so she got in the passenger seat and that’s when she saw the loaded Black Beretta 9mm pistol she keeps in her glove box in his pocket and noticed he seemed intoxicated, the report said.

Greene accused her of sleeping with his uncle and cousin, the report said.

She said she begged him to take her home several times and he eventually began driving toward the woman’s home on Old Baileys Road but saw Highway Patrol and continued driving “to avoid being spotted,” the report said.

He then pulled over at an Okatie area store and went inside, the report said. When he came back out, the woman “demanded” he take her home and said she “wanted her pistol back,” the report said.

He told her he didn’t trust her with it before allegedly removing the magazine from the pistol and the bullet from the chamber then putting it on the dashboard in front of her, the report said.

Once the two were driving on Okatie Highway again, the woman reached for the unloaded pistol and they began fighting over it, the report said. While the car was still moving, the woman reached over and put the car in reverse, then in park, which slowed the car down enough for her to jump out, the report said.

A passing motorist stopped to help her and she flagged down Jasper County deputies who were in the area, the report said.

The woman was uninjured.

A deputy wrote in the report that Greene is a convicted felon on an assault and battery charge with intent to kill from 1992, and that he is not allowed to possess a firearm. The man also had an active arrest warrant from the Bluffton Police Department from the month before for first-degree domestic violence and was on parole.

The initial arrest warrant

The arrest warrant for Greene from the Bluffton Police Department was for an incident that happened in May, department spokesperson Joy Nelson said in an email.

Nelson said the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office — who knew the Bluffton Police Department had an arrest warrant out for Greene — found him on Hilton Head Island on July 8 and brought him to the Bluffton Police Department where he was arrested and taken to the Beaufort County Detention Center.

On May 9, Bluffton Police Department officers met with a woman who said she came to get her car from the Kroger parking lot on Towne Drive when Greene assaulted her, according to a Bluffton Police Department report.

The woman’s name was redacted from the Bluffton Police Department report so it is unclear if the women in the Bluffton Police Department’s report and the Sheriff’s Office report are the same person.

Greene had told the woman he left her vehicle in the parking lot so she asked him to meet her at the car so she could get her keys back, the report said. When Greene got there he told the victim, “let’s go.”

The woman told him she didn’t want him to ride with her, the report said. They argued until Greene spit in her face, struck her in the neck, and tried to strike her again before she moved out of the way.

She called 911 and Greene ran away, the report said.

Because Greene had two other domestic violence charges within the last 10 years, he was charged with first-degree domestic violence for this incident, the report said.

Greene was still detained at the Beaufort County Detention Center as of Tuesday morning.

This story was originally published July 24, 2018 at 11:08 AM.