Ocean View man sentenced to 5 years for domestic attack

KAILUA-KONA — An Ocean View man was sentenced to serve up to five years in prison for a domestic attack on his former girlfriend earlier this year.

Vencent Nelson also was ordered to pay $7,540.93 in restitution for medical expenses.

Judgment was handed down during a sentencing hearing Sept. 11 before Kona Circuit Judge Robert D.S. Kim.

Nelson pleaded guilty in July to second-degree assault. Per a plea agreement, a charge of abuse of a family or household member was dropped in exchange for his plea to the assault charge.

The charges stem from a March incident in which Nelson’s former girlfriend was found unconscious in the area of Pohue Bay in the Hawaiian Ranchos subdivision of Ka‘u.

According to police, Nelson and his then-girlfriend walked down to Pohue Bay and stayed overnight. During the night, Nelson had an argument and altercation with the victim.

As they walked back up the road the next day, Nelson told police that his girlfriend continued to throw rocks at him, and at one point struck him with a fishing pole, according to testimony from Detective Brandon Mansur during a preliminary hearing March 15.

Mansur further testified that Nelson claimed the victim stopped to go to the bathroom and he later found her passed out, like she was sleeping.

The Alaska woman was taken in critical condition to Kona Community Hospital and later transported to The Queen’s Medical Center on Oahu. Police said she suffered traumatic injuries to her head and bruising and redness about her body.

When authorities contacted her in May, she was living with her parents and appeared to have suffered “serious injuries that she still has to deal with,” said Hawaii Police Department Maj. Robert Wagner.

Email Tiffany DeMasters at tdemasters@westhawaiitoday.com.