Fred E. Thomas pleaded guilty to assaulting his recently estranged wife of 39 years when she came to stay at his house in July, when she told him that she was planning to travel to Pakistan to meet a man whom she had been communicating with on the internet.
It is alleged that Thomas offered her $20 to have sex with him and when she refused the prosecution said that he hit her across the face with his penis.
Despite pleading guilty his Defense Attorney Justin Andrus said Thomas was tremendously upset that his marriage of 39 years was ending and that the incident was completely out of character.
“This was not his normal conduct,” Andrus told Justice Jeffrey Hjelm during the sentencing hearing in Knox County Superior Court.
Justice Hjelm was unmoved however, ordering that Thomas serve at least 5 days of his muted 180-day sentence in prison, siting the offences were heinous enough to warrant actual incarceration.
While Thomas’ wife did not seek jail time for her former husband she did ask that he be forced to undergo mandatory anger management, a request that was also agreed to by the court.
