AUSTIN, TX – A Texas man has escaped any consequences for allegedly beating his pregnant girlfriend to the point that the unborn child died after accepting a jail-free plea deal offered by the Travis County District Attorney’s office.
Johnny Charles Ebbs V had purportedly beaten his girlfriend LaShonda Lemons in 2019 in Austin, Texas, hospitalizing her; Lemons, who was pregnant at the time, lost the child the couple were having together three days later due to blunt force trauma the baby suffered.
According to reports, during his assault on her, Ebbs punched Lemons in the stomach and yelled, “F**k you and this baby! You aren’t going anywhere!”
Ebbs took the plea deal on Monday, which comes with eight years of deferred adjudication on a third-degree continuous family violence assault charge; according to Texas attorney’s website, deferred adjudication is when a person pleads guilty or no contest to a charge, and there is no finding of guilt at the time of sentencing.
If by his sentencing date he is not found guilty, Ebbs will avoid all jail time for his alleged crime – he will only be required to wear a GPS monitor for six months – and will actually have the charge dismissed altogether if he does not violate his probation.
If Ebbs does violate his probation, he could face up to the full punishment of the original charge.
Kelsey McKay, an attorney representing Lemons, noted that Ebbs has yet to abide by an agreed-upon order of protection that requires him to surrender any guns that he may own, calling the order “relatively useless” because it is not being enforced.
“We have firearm surrender laws. We have domestic violence laws. But if there’s not enforcement and implementation of those laws, they’re relatively useless,” McKay said.
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