VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Author's note: The video above is on file from December 2021, when the Avalon Center was expanding its resources for victims of domestic violence.
A Virginia Beach man will spend 10 years in prison for severely beating a woman with a baseball bat.
Macie Allen, the spokeswoman for Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Colin Stolle, said 45-year-old Tramon Earl Holley hurt a woman he knew twice.
The first time, in mid-December 2019, Holley came to the victim's house after she didn't answer phone calls from him. He grabbed her, took her phone, kept her from running away, and hit her, leading the woman to fall into the banister of her staircase. She was bruised and popped a blood vessel in her eye.
About a week later, on Dec. 28, the victim got to her home around 9 p.m. and heard someone upstairs. Holley came down to meet her, yelling because "she had ignored him most of the day."
She had a camera in her home, but Holley had unplugged it.
The screaming escalated into physical violence. Allen said Holley "punched her in the face and kicked her repeatedly," before stopping to drink some alcohol.
When he paused, the victim tried to run, but Holley grabbed a baseball bat and hit her in the head repeatedly. He also hit her body, and the woman lost consciousness for a while.
"She believed she was going to die and begged him to call an ambulance or take her to the hospital," Allen wrote. "He told her, 'I’m going to let you live, this time,' before leaving the residence with her cell phone."
The woman pulled herself up, got to her car, and made it to Sentara Independence Hospital before collapsing in the doorway. Later, she wasn't able to explain how she made it there.
Doctors treated the woman for a concussion and a contusion to her left shoulder. They also had to give her 28 staples for the cuts on her head. She was able to tell hospital staff who had hurt her.
Holley was charged with Malicious Wounding, Abduction, and Assault and Battery of a Family Member. He pleaded guilty to those charges in September 2021.
In his sentencing hearing, Circuit Court Judge Stephen C. Mahan initially gave Holley 26 years in prison but suspended 16 of them. Suspended sentences are typically dismissed later, if offenders meet certain conditions set by the judge.
Before this case, Holley had a prior record that included Breaking and Entering with a Deadly Weapon, Use of a Firearm, Obstruction of Justice, Threatening Language over Airways, Dangerous Drugs-Possession of Paraphernalia, Assault (2 counts), Resisting Arrest, Trespass, Petit Larceny, and DUI.