KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A man arrested Wednesday after police crisis negotiators responded to his home in Northwest Knoxville has previously been charged with assaulting a Knoxville woman now missing nearly a month.
On Wednesday, the Knoxville Police Department said it arrested 28-year-old John Bassett on a felony charge for violating probation by possessing cocaine with the intent to sell or deliver it.
KPD sent in crisis negotiators and several officers to serve the warrant at his home on 2127 Ohio Avenue Wednesday afternoon, but did not find him there. Police found him later that evening and took him into custody.
Bassett has a lengthy arrest record, tied mostly to drugs.
Court records also show Bassett was previously charged with domestic assault against a missing woman, Desheena Kyle, in 2014. At the time, the two were in a relationship.
Investigators said the last verified sighting of Kyle, 26, was on June 18 on Wilson Road in North Knoxville. One of Kyle's family members told 10News Bassett had been stalking her before her disappearance.
According to court records, on July 27, 2014 Bassett got into an argument with Kyle at his home on Ohio Avenue.
Kyle told officers Bassett then came up from behind her and began hitting her in the forehead and side of her face.
Kyle said she left in Bassett's vehicle and as she pulled into her apartment complex, she saw Bassett leaving in a minivan. She said she locked the vehicle's doors after parking before Bassett walked up to the vehicle and began hitting the driver-side window.
Bassett then threw a rock into the window, the report said. Officers said they found the driver-side window broken with a large rock in the floorboard.
Kyle said she then got out of the vehicle and tried to call 911 while walking away. Officers said they saw numerous abrasions on her left thigh, which she said were caused by the broken glass. The report said Bassett then approached her, took the phone, and threw it onto the ground, breaking it.
Kyle said Bassett then went back to her vehicle, retrieved his keys and drove off.
A judge dismissed the assault charge against Bassett in December 2014.
Bassett was booked into the Knox County Detention Center on Thursday and has been denied bond.
The Search for Desheena Continues
Police said Desheena Kyle disappeared from Wilson Road and that her last verified sighting was on June 18.
Investigators said they have a strong reason to believe she could be in danger but have not said if they suspect Bassett is tied to her disappearance.
"I can't believe I'm looking at my baby's pictures out here like this. She's really missing," Kyle's grandmother, Betty Turner-Deas, told 10News.
The family is offering a $10,000 reward for information.
June 25 was Kyle's 26th birthday. It also marked the first time her family hadn't heard from her.
"This is the first time since she's been born that I haven't talked to her on her birthday," said Turner-Deas.
Kyle's aunt, Rita Turner, said she tried numerous times that day to make contact, but came up short.
She said friends say they last spoke to Kyle two days before her birthday, while KPD confirms the last verified sighting was days before that.
"What we do know is that this is so unlike her. We know that she's either in a ton of distress or she's in danger," said Turner.