Earlier this month Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni said two grants totaling $220,000 will improve the response of both prosecutors and service providers for victims of domestic violence.
SPRINGFIELD – In a month where several high-profile domestic violence incidents have called attention to the dangers surrounding such crimes, domestic violence cases are heard daily at the Hampden County Hall of Justice.
One such case ended Thursday, when 24-year-old James Davis pleaded guilty in Hampden Superior Court to a violent attack on his girlfriend with a metal stick that left her running for safety leaving their one-month-old baby still inside the apartment.
It was about 15 hours before police located the baby, who Davis had dropped off with his friends when he disappeared from the couples’ Indian Orchard apartment before police got there and found a bloody scene, a prosecutor said.
The recent incidents putting the spotlight on domestic violence include a shooting rampage by Carlos Gonzalez-Laguer in Chicopee April 13 after he broke into the apartment of an ex-girlfriend who had restraining order against him.
Another such incident happened April 7, when Westfield police responded to a call from a woman who said her ex-husband was trying to break into her apartment. That incident left Douglas Musto fatally shot by a police officer, after another officer was stabbed in the leg by Musto, police said.
Earlier this month Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni said two grants totaling $220,000 will improve the response of both prosecutors and service providers for victims of domestic violence.
“I understand the widespread ramifications of domestic violence on families, children and the community and in response I have dedicated attention and resources to this critical problem,” Mastroianni said when he announced the grants.
In the Hampden Superior Court case Thursday, a prosecutor said Davis told the woman as he was beating her; “This is what you get for embarrassing me in front of my friends.”
As the woman and the child watched in the courtroom, Judge Peter A. Velis sentenced Davis to three years in state prison followed by three years probation.
Both defense lawyer Nikolas Andreopoulos and the victim asked that Velis recommend Davis serve his sentence in the Hampden County House of Corrections in Ludlow rather than state prison so the woman and baby can visit him.
Velis agreed to recommend that, but not before some harsh warnings for Davis.
Velis told Davis the reason he will recommend the jail location is because “your son persuaded me by virtue of his existence. If you love your son... you will reflect on what you did.”
“You know in the back of your mind he may someday find out what you did to his mother,” Velis said. He said if Davis from now on proves to be a worthy father, maybe his son will forgive him if he ever finds out.
Assistant District Attorney Melissa G. Doran said the plea agreement was reached after a lot of negotiations and difficulty getting the case to trial.
She said at 3:40 a.m. May 24, 2011, the woman called police from a pay phone on Worcester Street and told them about the assault in her apartment and her child still being there.
Officers went to the apartment and found blood on the floor, the sofa and bathroom, but the child and Davis were not there. Davis was located six days later.
Officers found the woman near the pay phone in a sweater and underwear with dried blood on her mouth and bruises on her face, arms and legs. She was treated at Baystate Medical Center.
The woman told police Davis had woken her up and beat her with a broomstick and then a metal stick, also punching her in the face, and she had fled in what she was wearing at the time, Doran said.
Doran said Davis put his own child “in harm’s way. He beat his mother while he (the child) was right there.”
The charges to which Davis pleaded guilty were two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and one of assault and battery.
On April 13 in Chicopee, Gonzalez-Laguer fired nearly 70 shots, injuring two people, including a state trooper.
The woman who had the restraining order against him and her 8-year-old son were able to escape without injury.
Investigators said Gonzalez-Laguer committed suicide by shooting himself in the head after he had been struck at least twice by police bullets.
Three other women had previously had restraining orders against Gonzalez-Laguer.
In the Westfield incident April 7, the officers were responding to a 2 a.m. emergency call from a woman who said her ex-husband was trying to break down the door to her apartment at 128 Elm St.
When officers arrived at the scene, Musto pulled a knife as an officer tried to handcuff him, according to Westfield police.