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A Victoria man was recently sentenced for two counts of felony assault and battery of a family member and one count of obstruction of justice — witness intimidation, a release from the Lunenburg Commonwealth’s Attorney cited.

Lloyd Lee Wilson, 44, was sentenced in Lunenburg Circuit Court, Aug. 5, by Circuit Court Judge J. William Watson to 20 years in prison, with 17 suspended, for an active sentence of three years. He was acquitted of a charge of Attempted Robbery.

According to Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Robert Clement, his assistant, Baxter Stegall mounted a vigorous prosecution against Wilson for his unprovoked attack of his longtime live-in girlfriend which occurred Aug. 21, 2018, in a parking lot in Victoria. Testimony in the trial revealed that she and Wilson’s sister were walking back home from a local store when Wilson approached from the rear and grabbed her purse. She pulled away and the purse strap broke. He then shoved her to the ground and punched her in the face. Wilson’s sister tried to stop the assault, but Wilson shoved her to the ground also. He then returned to punching his girlfriend and struck her repeatedly in the face, causing a swollen lip and minor bleeding from her mouth.

The trial was initially set for March 5, 2019, but the girlfriend failed to appear in court. Upon hearing that she may have been threatened by Wilson, Stegall obtained all of Wilson’s jail calls since his incarceration. Hours of review paid off when he discovered Wilson confessing to the assault to one caller, and admitted he was trying to see money in his girlfriend’s purse. Wilson was also recorded talking to his girlfriend, threatening to beat her if she appeared in court to testify against him. He erroneously told her that he couldn’t be convicted without her testimony. Stegall indicted Wilson for Obstruction of Justice – Witness Intimidation on these phone calls.

On the new trial date, the girlfriend did appear and reluctantly testified against Wilson, saying he had pushed her down and struck her. She also confirmed he was the caller in the jail calls, and said that she believed his threat that he would hurt her if she testified against him and that was why she hadn’t come to court on the earlier date.

Wilson testified on his own behalf, and under cross-examination admitted that he had pushed both his girlfriend and his sister. He admitted it was his voice on the jail calls, and admitted that he had said he would assault her if she came to court. He attempted to justify his statements, saying, “That’s just how we talk to each other.”

At sentencing, Stegall argued for an active sentence of eight years, stressing Wilson’s prior violent history which includes two convictions of assaulting the same victim, a 2009 conviction of Malicious Wounding for stabbing the same victim, a conviction for violating a protective order that the same victim had taken out, and a number of probation violations. Stegall also pointed to a number of protective orders that the victim had taken out against Wilson, only to request they be dropped later.

Stegall argued that neither probation, court orders, protective orders, counseling, convictions, or even suspended jail time would be successful in deterring Wilson’s violent actions in the future, and that the only way to protect the victim from future violence and even death would be to imprison Wilson for a lengthy term.

Judge Watson sentenced Wilson to five years with four years suspended in the assault against the girlfriend; Five years with all five suspended in the assault against his sister, and 10 years with eight suspended for Obstruction of Justice. He further ordered him to complete anger management counseling, be on supervised probation for one year upon his release, and pay costs of court.

The Lunenburg Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office is not releasing the names of victims of domestic violence in this case.

According to the release, “Wilson will soon now be facing a Revocation hearing for violating the condition of good behavior in some of his prior suspended sentences. This may be heard in October or November.”