Published: October 31, 2008 02:50 pm      

Jeffersonville man pleads guilty in battery cases

Attempted murder charge dropped

A Jeffersonville man was sentenced to two years in the Indiana Department of Correction and one year home incarceration after pleading guilty in three battery cases.

John Henry Simmons, 29, pleaded guilty to two counts of class C felony battery and one count of class A misdemeanor domestic battery.

Simmons was arrested on a preliminary attempted murder charge in July for slitting his ex-girlfriend’s throat with a kitchen knife, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

Police found the 22-year-old victim at a residence along the 1000 block of Watt Street In Jeffersonville, and she was transported to the hospital. The victim was in court for the sentencing, but declined to make a statement.

Jeffersonville Police Department officers found Simmons hiding on the roof of a nearby building shortly after the incident.

On that case, Simmons was sentenced to eight years with six of them suspended.

Simmons also pleaded guilty to causing bodily injury to another victim with a broken beer bottle in January. He was sentenced to two years in prison on that case. He also admitted to battering another woman in March. He was sentenced to one year in prison on that case. All of the sentences will run concurrently.

The guilty plea was entered Sept. 30, and Superior Court No. 1 Judge Vicki Carmichael accepted the plea at a hearing Thursday.

“Based upon the evidence we had in this case, this was a good plea and sentence,” Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said. “The evidence would indicate the witnesses to this crime were heavily intoxicated, and the witnesses would have given contradictory statements.”

Mull also said prosecutors did not have reliable witnesses in the other two cases.

“Mr. Simmons is a good man who got caught up with some bad events,” said Jennifer Hinkebein Culotta, who represented Simmons. “I don’t think the original charges [of attempted murder] were fair.”