Blood spattered car after husband beat wife while driving drunk, Kentucky cops say

A Kentucky man was arrested Friday night after he allegedly brutally assaulted his wife of 15 years while driving intoxicated, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department said.

The husband and father of his wife’s children, 37-year-old Nevin Partain, was charged with first-degree assault, operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, wanton endangerment and careless driving.

The sheriff’s office received a call about a vehicle driving erratically on Interstate 64, and a deputy found the car failing to maintain a lane, according to an arrest citation. When Partain exited the interstate, he began driving under the speed limit and continued crossing over the center line, leading to the deputy pulling him over, the sheriff’s deputy wrote in the citation.

Partain, of Fisherville, “smelled heavily of alcoholic beverages and his eyes were bloodshot and watery,” the deputy said. He also had blood covering his hands and his knuckles were swollen, according to the citation.

His wife “appeared lifeless” and was badly beaten, the deputy said. Her hair covered the vehicle and was stuck to the center console, driver door and both her and her husband, court records show.

“At first, I thought she was actually deceased,” the citation written by the deputy said.

There was also blood covering the vehicle’s center console, steering wheel and on the lap of Partain’s wife, the sheriff’s deputy wrote. The wife had a busted lip, cut on her nose, bruises on her head and her entire face and eyes were swollen, the deputy said.

The deputy also observed a broken windshield from where the woman’s head struck it, “as evident by hair in the cracks of the windshield.”

Tears streamed down the wife’s blood-covered face and she also vomited on herself, despite telling the deputy she had just one glass of wine with dinner, according to court records.

“The victim said (her husband) abuses her and assaults her all the time, as he had tonight,” the deputy said. “She said (he) calls her ‘fat’ and demeans her often.’”

Partain waived his Miranda rights and said he and his wife were in a physical altercation while driving. He alleged his wife was drunk and grabbed the steering wheel, which caused them to run off into a ditch on the interstate, according to court records.

He later said he did not realize his wife was injured as bad as she was.

“Injuries sustained and evidence suggests (Partain) is the primary aggressor and that he was assaulting the victim while driving on the interstate, at a high rate of speed,” the sheriff’s office said.

The wife was transported to University of Louisville Hospital for her injuries, according to the sheriff’s deputy. Partain refused a preliminary breath test but gave a blood sample at the hospital.

Partain has been placed in the Shelby County Detention Center and awaits a Tuesday arraignment.