According to a probable cause affidavit, Davey Hamilton Jr. allegedly lured his ex-girlfriend to Florida and held her against her will by knifepoint
Former Indy Lights driver Davey Hamilton Jr. was arrested over the weekend for armed false imprisonment and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Davey Hamilton Jr., 21, — who is the son of former IndyCar driver and 11-time Indianapolis 500 starter Davey Hamilton — was taken into custody on Feb. 23 after he allegedly posed as a modeling agent, lured his ex-girlfriend to Florida and then entered her suite at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown West Palm Beach, where he allegedly held her against her will by knifepoint.
According to a West Palm Beach Police Department probable cause affidavit, obtained by PEOPLE on Tuesday, Hamilton’s ex-girlfriend allegedly told police that she had come to Florida from Indiana to be a brand ambassador for a vodka company. She said she got the job a week earlier after communicating via-text with the company’s owner “Alex,” who was friends with Hamilton and sponsored his race team.
She said she was promised $5,000 for the gig.
Once in Florida, she alleged she was picked up by a private chauffeur, taken to the hotel where her room key was placed under the room door and was told by Alex via text message to “get ready.”
While she was in the shower, Hamilton, who is a USAC Silver Crown series driver, allegedly broke into the suite and confronted her while she was in the shower with a 10-inch green foldable serrated knife.
The woman told police she got out of the shower and was blocked from leaving the hotel room by Hamilton, who allegedly told her, “It didn’t have to be this way.”
She told police that while she was sitting on the bed Hamilton allegedly began grilling her about their breakup one week earlier and “suspicion that she may have been cheating on him,” according to the affidavit.
Hamilton was “very angry and kept the knife pointed at her the whole time, and although he was not yelling, it was evident that he was very angry as the encounter progressed,” according to the affidavit.
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
The woman told police she was able to escape about 25 minutes later and screamed for help. Hamilton allegedly escaped out of a hotel emergency exit.
According to the affidavit, police found Hamilton near Palm Beach Atlantic University and took him into custody. During a police interview, the former USAC Silver Crown series driver allegedly confessed, claiming that he didn’t intend to hurt his ex and just planned to scare her.
He told police that he orchestrated the whole scheme, used different numbers to communicate with her and “admitted that all along this time the person communicating with [the ex] via-text was not ‘Alex,’ but was in fact, Hamilton.”
According to the Indianapolis Star, Hamilton is being held at the West Palm Beach Main Detention Center on $30,000 bail.
His criminal attorneys, Jim Voyles and Brian Bieber, said in a statement to the Star: “We believe the facts ultimately may come out a little differently than they are being portrayed at this time. We believe there is another side to this story.”
“We will defend him very vigorously,” Voyles tells PEOPLE. “There are always two sides to every story.”
Prosecutors could not be reached for comment.
A court hearing is scheduled for March 25 where he will face formal charges. He has yet to enter a plea.