A 21-year-old resident of The Villages has been sentenced to anger management after an attack earlier this year on the mother of his child.
The woman was carrying a baby on the evening of Jan. 18 when she showed up at a Villager’s doorstep after suffering a bloody nose during an alleged altercation with the baby’s father.
The woman had been with John David Newell at the Circle K at 3 LaGrande Blvd. on the Historic Side of The Villages when they got into an argument, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. Newell allegedly broke the woman’s phone during the argument.
The couple was walking on Lester Drive when the woman told Newell he would need to buy her a new phone. Newell became “agitated” and punched the woman in the face, leaving her with a bloody nose.
She returned to Newell’s home at 1701 Hilton Head Blvd., where she retrieved their baby and fled to a neighbor’s house. Newell told police he “did not realize how hard he had hit” the woman. Newell was arrested on a charge of domestic battery.
This past week in Lake County Court, Newell entered a plea of no contest in the case. He has been ordered to undergo 12 hours of anger management training, seek a mental health evaluation, perform 25 hours of community service and has been placed on probation for one year.
In 2016, Newell was arrested after damaging his uncle’s golf cart, also on the Historic Side of The Villages.
