54-year old man to serve for years

A 54-year man has been sent to prison for four years for a case that the prosecutor called a serious beating. Charles Allen Vinson walked into the Oconee courtroom this afternoon charged with criminal domestic violence high and aggravated nature. The judge accepted a negotiated plea that allowed Vinson to plead to assault and battery first degree. Assistant solicitor Blair Stoudemire said Vinson’s victim was a former girlfriend, who Stoudemire said was punched in the right eye, fell unconscious, and then kicked and stomped. Sgt. Kevin Cain of the Oconee Sheriff’s Department asked Judge Alex Macaulay to look at photos of the woman’s bruises all over her body. In passing sentence, Macaulay considered Vinson’s four previous convictions for criminal domestic violence. The official sentence: 10 years in prison, suspended to four years, with credit for 18 days in jail, five years probation, and required drug, alcohol, and battery testing. Vinson’s attorney, assistant public defender Danny Day, wanted a sentence that would have released his client to home incarceration. Vinson apologized, but asked to be allowed to stay out of prison. He said he had a new girlfriend with whom, he said, he likes to attend church.