by the Journal-Opinion

NEWPORT — A Morgan man who allegedly spent an entire day threatening, following and holding a woman and her child at gunpoint, at one point telling them they were all going to die, has been ordered held without bail on felony domestic assault charges.

Ezra Foss, 28, pleaded not guilty in Orleans County Superior Court to first-degree aggravated domestic assault, first-degree aggravated domestic assault with a weapon and three counts of reckless endangerment before Judge Justin Jiron.

The trouble began the morning of Oct. 19 when the woman tried to take her son to school, according to an affidavit filed by Newport City Police Patrolman Tanner Jacobs. Foss cut her off with his truck and blocked the road, then grabbed her by the throat and pointed a gun at her.

He followed her to the school and a doctor’s appointment afterward, the affidavit says, an account backed by surveillance footage from both locations.

Back in Morgan, Foss blocked the woman’s car in the driveway and began cocking the gun and smashing it against the car window, the affidavit says. He went inside, came back with an AR rifle, then pried the car door open with a garden tool while threatening her with the handgun.

He allegedly told the woman he hoped to get into a shootout with police.

The woman managed to call 911 just before 9 p.m. while Foss was in the bathroom at a Cumberland Farms in Newport. Officers intercepted the vehicle as it left the parking lot.

After a brief traffic stop, Foss was taken into custody. A child in the backseat was crying.

An Orleans County sheriff’s deputy documented approximately 13 bruises on the woman. The woman told officers Foss had previously strangled her and that his threats had escalated in recent weeks.

Foss denied having a gun, claiming the woman tried to place hers in his lap during the traffic stop.