http://www.newnation.vg/forums/showthread.php?t=26450

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/16856125.htm

Sentence in cell-phone case
Man gets six-year term after he is convicted of shoving the instrument down a woman’s throat.

The courtroom had emptied, news cameras had vanished, but Marlon Brando Gill remained steadfast in his claim that he hadn’t shoved a cell phone down his girlfriend’s throat.

Regardless, he understood that after two trials and 15 months of sitting in jail, he was headed to prison for six years.

The sentence Wednesday by Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Michael W. Manners followed a jury’s decision last month to convict Gill, 25, of second-degree domestic assault against his now ex-girlfriend, Melinda Abell.

“I believe, in fact, you did intentionally shove the phone down Ms. Abell’s throat,” Manners said. “…I believe the jury got it right. … I believe it was a moment of anger.”

Manners levied the punishment after prosecutors and Abell had asked for the maximum of seven years in prison.

Gill’s attorney, Wm. David Langston, pointed out that his client was nearly acquitted during the first trial and had spent more than 430 days in jail. He asked Manners to release Gill on three years’ probation — subject to seven years in prison if he violated terms of the probation.

Langston, perturbed by the sentence, said he would appeal. He said he thought it was improper that Manners had allowed into evidence a record of past violent acts by Gill that were unsubstantiated by law enforcement. The defense attorney also claimed that the state had used Gill as an example against domestic-abuse predators and had ignored the specifics of this crime.

Lead prosecutor Tammy Dickinson said the state handled the case as it would have any other domestic abuse case, and that the six-year sentence offered relief for the victim.

Medical testimony said that Abell nearly died from a blocked airway before a doctor used a tool to remove the phone. It became lodged in the back of Abell’s throat in December 2005 as she and Gill drove through Blue Springs.

Abell testified that she couldn’t remember how the phone ended up there. Gill said that Abell had put the phone in her mouth, trying to keep him from seeing whom she had been calling.

Dickinson told jurors that Gill forced the phone into Abell’s throat after she had been out all night with a group of friends.

Abell took the stand during Wednesday’s two-hour hearing and said that she still feared Gill.

“I will never forget what has happened to me or what he did to me,” she said. “But I have to move on now.”