A man has pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, felony harassment, unlawful imprisonment and first-degree malicious mischief – all of the charges included
domestic violence allegations – due to two separate incidents that occurred the same week in June 2012 and involved his now-former spouse, as reported by the Tri-City Herald.
According to his defense attorney Bob Thompson, D.B., 44, of Richland, suffers with significant brain damage from a previous car accident, which is most likely to what have caused his behavior.
During the incidents D.B. allegedly held his estranged wife, C.B., at gunpoint, and threatened to kill her and then himself during a seven-hour standoff that began in a parking lot.
D.B. pleaded guilty to all charges after accepting an Alford plea offered by the prosecution, but maintained that he did not do the crimes he was accused of. In his plea statement D.B. wrote, "I know that if the jury believed the state witness, I could be convicted of more serious charges and I do not want to take that risk."
Court records show that the former couple's argument escalated from a discussion to a physical altercation when C.B. knocked a cigarette from D.B.'s mouth. He then pushed her down onto a bed and grabbed her neck – allegedly causing her to have trouble breathing.
D.B. threatened to phone the police, sending them both to jail, and C.B. then sat down on a couch and waited for the police to arrive. At this time D.B. used a phone book as a weapon and hit his wife across the cheek with it.
C.B. then left the home. When she returned the next day her big-screen television had been destroyed and several other items in her home had been slashed with a knife. According to Deputy Prosecutor Megan Whitmire, the damages exceeded $5,000.
D.B. was arrested and placed on a 72-hour hold while the prosecutors considered what to charge him with. When the hold expired D.B. left police custody, found where C.B.'s car was parked outside of her job in a supermarket, and waited for her inside the car.
At approximately 12:45 a.m. C.B. entered her car without realizing that D.B. had been lying in wait for her. D.B. raised a gun to C.B., ordered her to drive to another parking lot where they would find, and then enter, his car. D.B., allegedly having smoked marijuana, threatened to "blow her (expletive) head off" for taking everything from him.
At some point during the standoff the pair returned to C.B.'s car because she had grown cold. D.B. told C.B. that he would seek immediate help for his mental problems if she would drop the protective order she had placed against him.
The two drove to a crisis center, found it closed, and then drove around. Though C.B. had lowered his gun, D.B. said he still held it in his hand. They returned to the crisis center when it opened and C.B. called 911 once D.B. was inside the building.
Within approximately seven minutes police arrived.
The judge will recommend the lowest of the standard range – a one-year 10-month term – and order that D.B. complete a treatment for domestic violence.
Contact a criminal defense attorney if you have been accused of domestic violence or a violent crime.
