BYU home teacher charged in attack on woman

PROVO — A BYU student was charged Thursday with attacking a woman with a stun gun and trying to handcuff her.

Stetson Hallam, 20, was charged with aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony, in connection with an April 6 incident.

Hallam is reportedly the woman's home teacher in their LDS ward and lives in the same Provo apartment complex. He repeatedly pressured the woman, 19, to meet him so he could "give her a gift," according to a police affidavit filed in 4th District Court.

Despite her efforts to elude him, the woman said Hallam eventually waited outside her apartment for her to return, then asked her to go to a basement laundry room, the affidavit states. He allegedly told her that he had set up a scavenger hunt for her.

Once in the room, the woman told police Hallam attacked her with a Taser-like weapon, pinned her to the ground and tried to handcuff her. Despite the electric shock, the woman, who said she feared he was trying to rape her, began screaming and fighting back, at one point biting Hallam's finger, the affidavit states.

After being bitten, Hallam released the woman, apologized, and called his actions an April Fools joke, police said. The woman showed police burn marks on her arm from the weapon, and investigators found a bite mark on Hallam's hand.

— Josh Smith