Georgia man who choked woman and hurled Vienna sausages declared ‘menace to society’

Stephen Strange, a young man from Roberta, was sent to prison the other day after a series of unusual and occasionally violent run-ins with others there earlier this year, perhaps the most bizarre of which involved a can of Vienna sausages.

Strange, 26, pleaded guilty in Crawford Superior Court to aggravated assault for choking a woman at the Roberta Inn on April 21. He was sentenced to four years behind bars and six more on probation.

At Strange’s sentencing, assistant district attorney Neil Halvorson described Strange as a “menace to society.”

In a news release about Strange’s troublemaking, prosecutors noted that soon after attacking the woman at the motel, Strange heaved a brick at an eyewitness’s car, busting the car’s window.

Earlier in February, while on a bicycle on Old Knoxville Road, Strange, “without provocation,” swung a machete at a passing truck, prosecutors said. Strange was also involved in a late-February episode near the county board of education office where some boys, teenagers in trucks, happened upon Strange eating a can of Vienna sausages.

“Strange threw the can at one of the trucks as they drove by,” prosecutors noted. “When asked why he threw the can, Strange threatened to beat the boys.”

Asked about Strange’s behavior, Crawford Sheriff Lewis Walker told The Telegraph on Monday: “You’re hoping he’ll grow up.”

District Attorney David Cooke said in a statement: “Mr. Strange has bullied everyone in his path, terrorizing teenagers and adults alike. Hopefully, he will learn how to act more peacefully with others by the time he returns to Crawford County.”

This story was originally published July 2, 2018 at 1:10 PM.