TYLER, Texas — A Tyler man accused of assaulting a woman, pouring fluids on her clothes and photos and sending threatening messages to scare her remains jailed as of Tuesday on a stalking charge.
John Richard Moss, 52, was arrested by the United States Marshal Service Monday. He was booked into the Smith County Jail on a $450,000 bond, jail records show.
According to an arrest affidavit, a woman reported smelling a strong odor of diesel and/or gas in her home to the Smith County Sheriff’s Office in June. She found her clothes and family photos covered in food and fluid. She told the deputy that Moss admitted to pouring the fluids.
About a month later, the woman told a deputy Moss had been texting and calling her so much that she had to change her phone number. The calls and messages were threatening in nature, according to the affidavit.
After asking him to stop contacting her, she told deputies Moss responded multiple times and “threatened to post an explicit photo” of her on social media, the document read.
In another incident, deputies responded to the woman’s house after she found a broken glass bottle and a small broken TV in her driveway. She believed Moss did this because of a neighbor's security camera footage showing his vehicle in front of her home, the affidavit stated.
Two loud sounds were heard from the video and the deputy said it was consistent with objects being thrown or shattered. A deputy also reviewed the woman’s phone to find Moss had texted her over 100 times within about a month, the affidavit read.
Security camera video showed a vehicle matching the description of Moss’ car passing her house over a period of days. In an audio recording on the woman’s phone, Moss could be heard calling her inappropriate names and she asked him to stop hurting her, the affidavit said.
