A man accused of brutally beating his ex-wife will spend 10 years in prison.
Brian Clark, 37, of Waynesboro, pleaded guilty to one count of domestic violence aggravated assault in May. At his sentencing Friday, Lowndes County Circuit Court Judge Jim Kitchens gave Clark 16 years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with six years suspended.
Officers with the Columbus Police Department arrested Clark in September 2013 after he allegedly slammed his now ex-wife’s head against a wall. After Clark entered a guilty plea in May, the victim requested Clark not be sentenced until after he completed a domestic abuse intervention program, both Clark’s attorney, Rod Ray of Columbus, and District Attorney Scott Colom told The Dispatch. Clark was initially scheduled to be sentenced in November after completing the program.
But as of August, Clark had only completed 10 of the program’s 24 required classes.
Though Clark has no previous felonies in Lowndes County, a former girlfriend of his filed a petition for injunction for protection against domestic violence in Okaloosa County, Florida, earlier this year, according to exhibits included in Lowndes County Circuit Court records. According to the petition, Clark repeatedly beat the petitioner, broke her phone twice and threatened her, her ex-husband and her friends since she began dating him in 2015.
Ray did not return calls from The Dispatch by press time.
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