OREM, Utah, July 9, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A Utah County man who served prison time for the 2013 beating death of his stepfather has been charged for an alleged assault on a woman in Orem.
Suspect Strider Logan Diem, 43, was charged after a woman said he pushed her twice down the outer stairs of a small apartment complex in Orem.
“When the victim fell, it caused her to have injuries on her arms, legs, and right ankle,” say arrest documents for Diem, filed by an officer of the Orem Police Department.
“It was said by the victim that during the course of her falling and hitting the cement stairwell, she lost consciousness, awakening to find Diem standing over her. The victim stated the assault was completely random, and she does not know Diem that well.”
The victim also told police she and Diem “had both been drinking before the assault.”
The female was transported to Utah Valley Medical Hospital to be treated for injuries, the statement says.
“Medical staff at Utah Valley Hospital advised the victim had substantial injuries consistent with someone falling hard on the ground and having possible broken bone to her ankle,” Diem’s charging documents say. “Follow up with the victim will be conducted to confirm when her evaluation is complete at the hospital.
“The victim advised she was desirous of prosecution against Diem.”
Diem had left the scene in his vehicle before police arrived, the statement says, and initial attempts to contact Diem were unsuccessful.
Charging documents do not say how Diem was located, but do indicate he was arrested at 9:43 a.m. Sunday. They also advise Diem be without bail “due to his prior violent history where he was arrested and convicted for his involvement in a violent homicide in June 2013.”
In that case, Diem admitted to the homicide death of 79-year-old Melvin Rowley, his stepfather, after a confrontation that began after Diem’s mother took alcohol, forbidden in the house, from a backpack owned by Diem and poured it down a drain.
Charging documents say Diem struck his mother in the nose, and Rowley intervened and became Diem’s target.
Diem was convicted of homicide by assault and of aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult, both third-degree felonies. A judge ordered Diem to serve two concurrent terms of zero to five years in prison.
In Sunday’s arrest, for aggravated assault producing lost of consciousness, a second-degree felony, Diem was ordered to be held without bail in the Utah County jail.
