The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 30-year-old man who broke into his girlfriend’s house and assaulted her and the father of her children was fined nearly $5,000 yesterday.

David Taylor was charged with one count of housebreaking and two counts of assault after he was accused of forcing his way into his girlfriend’s home and punching the woman and her children’s father on August 30. The prosecution alleged Taylor also assaulted the woman with a handgun during the altercation that day.

During the hearing before Magistrate Samuel McKinney yesterday, Taylor pleaded guilty to the first three charges, but denied assaulting the complainant with a firearm.

The court heard the woman was at her residence around 7am when Taylor called her to ask if she was home. The prosecution said at the time, she told the defendant she was not home, but he still came to her residence 15 minutes later. The court was told when Taylor got there, he broke the latch of the woman’s backdoor when he pulled it open.

Once he entered the home, Taylor then approached the complainant and punched her in the face. The defendant then got into an altercation with the woman’s boyfriend and punched him as well. Being in fear of their lives, both complainants requested police action. Taylor was arrested a short time later. He denied the allegations in an interview with police.

When given an opportunity to speak during the hearing, Taylor told the magistrate the woman was his girlfriend and she had asked him to come to her house that day. Taylor claimed when he pulled the house door open, he met the woman there with the father of her children and the two of them got into an argument. He said the woman got between them in an attempt to part the fight. He also insisted he had been dating the complainant for three years and was asked to come to the house to bring her money to feed her kids. Taylor said the incident only transpired because he reacted in the heat of the moment when he saw her “baby daddy” in the home.

After listening to the defendant’s explanation, Magistrate McKinney accepted his guilty pleas. Taylor was subsequently fined $3,500 or eight months in prison for house breaking and $1,000 or three months in custody for assaulting his girlfriend and the father of her children. He was further ordered to compensate the female complaint $272 for damaging her door.

Since Taylor denied assaulting the woman with a handgun, that matter was adjourned for trial on November 30. Due to the nature of the charge, Taylor was denied bail and remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services in the interim. He has a right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.