Man pleads guilty to multiple charges after arrest in assault
Published 9:04 am Tuesday, February 24, 2015
An Elizabethton man entered a guilty plea Monday morning on several charges stemming from a weekend incident in which he allegedly assaulted two people and scuffled with police.
Police arrested Brian Gillette, 27, of 905 Johnson Ave. Saturday afternoon after receiving a complaint of a disorderly man near the intersection of Holly and West C streets.
When he arrived in the area, EPD Officer Matthew Taylor said he saw a man sitting on an embankment near a home. Taylor approached the man and asked if he was OK, but the man would not respond. After a short time, Taylor said the man looked up at him and began cursing at him. As the man spoke, Taylor noted he had slurred speech and his eyes were glossy.
As Taylor attempted to talk to the man, later identified as Gillette, the man’s mother arrived and told officers her son had been drinking and was upset because he had just been in an argument.
While officers were trying to speak to him, Gillette continued being aggressive toward the officers, Taylor said, adding officers decided to take Gillette into custody due to his intoxication.
When officers attempted to arrest Gillette, he resisted and officers had to use pepper spray to get him under control, Taylor said.
After Gillette was in custody, officers learned he may have been involved in a domestic altercation at a home on Holly Street with his ex-girlfriend and his mother. During that altercation, Gillette allegedly strangled his ex-girlfriend with her scarf and struck his mother in the face before breaking the home’s front door.
Police charged Gillette with vandalism under domestic violence, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and two counts of domestic assault.
Gillette appeared in General Sessions Court on Monday for arraignment and reached a plea agreement on the charges. As part of the plea agreement, the charges of public intoxication and disorderly conduct against Gillette were dropped. He was sentenced to a $25 fine and court costs as well as 11 months and 29 days probation to run concurrently on each of the two domestic assault charges and also on the domestic vandalism charge. He was also ordered to have “no violent contact” with the victims. He was also sentenced to a $25 fine and court costs as well as five months and 29 days probation on the resisting arrest charge.