NORTHAMPTON — A 30-year-old South Hadley man was sentenced to three to four years in prison Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to 12 counts related to two assaults on his former girlfriend.
Michael Davis entered the guilty pleas before Hampshire Superior Court Judge Francis Flannery, who accepted the sentence recommended jointly by Assistant District Attorney Erin Aiello and defense attorney Jared Olanoff.
Though the plea agreement calls for Davis to serve his sentence at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, Flannery agreed at the urging of the defense to recommend that he serve some or all of his time at the Hampshire House of Correction. The state Department of Correction will determine where he serves his sentence.
He was given credit for 232 days he has spent in jail since his arrest in January.
In an outline of the commonwealth’s case, Aiello told the court that Davis’ former girlfriend had spoken with South Hadley police on Jan. 14, giving detailed accounts of two occasions on which Davis assaulted her. Both times, she said, he had screamed at her, threatened her, punched her in the face and smashed her phone. On one occasion, she said, he kicked her in the ribcage, fracturing four ribs and one of her thoracic vertebrae, causing ongoing chronic pain. He also strangled her until she lost consciousness and threw a candle and a glass cup at her, Aiello recounted.
Davis admitted to Flannery that the facts of the case as alleged were true.
Davis was arrested and prosecutors filed 12 counts against him in Eastern Hampshire District Court, including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, kidnapping and two counts of witness intimidation, all of which carry a maximum 10-year sentence. He also faced one count of strangulation, one count of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury, four counts of assault and battery on a family or household member, and two counts of malicious destruction of property.
The case was brought before a grand jury, which returned indictments in April, moving the case to Hampshire Superior Court.
Aiello said the victim in the case, who did not appear at Tuesday’s hearing, was hoping for a longer state prison term but was generally in agreement with the sentence. She noted that further offenses could make Davis subject to Massachusetts’ habitual offender and career criminal statutes, as Flannery had explained, which can lead to maximum penalties being imposed.
Olanoff said the plea agreement resolved this case and some other cases still pending out of Eastern Hampshire District Court. He said Davis had no criminal record until recent years, when he experienced worsening symptoms of his diagnosed bipolar disorder as well as post-traumatic stress. During the pandemic, he said, his client had found it difficult to get the mental health counseling he needed.
He said Davis got into a “toxic” relationship with a different woman and developed a drug problem. In the more recent relationship, he said, Davis and the woman were working on sobriety, but couldn’t make it stick.
He said Davis’ mother, who was in court, was a longtime teacher in Springfield and the two have a close and supportive relationship.
He said his client, who most recently worked at C&S Wholesale Grocers, realizes he has made some poor choices.
“He needs to improve in all those areas,” Olanoff said, “though that’s not to say he didn’t try.”
Davis was sentenced to three to four years in prison on the charge of strangulation, and three to four years, to be served concurrently, on the kidnapping, witness intimidation and two of the assault and battery counts. He was sentenced to two years in the Hampshire County Jail on two of the assault charges, and one year on the remaining assault and property destruction charges.
James Pentland can be reached at jpentland@gazettenet.com