Clock reset on man’s probation

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A Lakeview man, who was sentenced to four years probation last year in a domestic violence case involving gunshots, will now spend six years on probation after admitting he violated the terms and conditions of his original probation by committing third degree domestic battery in May.In addition, he will spend 90 days in the Baxter County jail.

The plea came during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday. The new sentence resets the clock on the time Christopher Packley will spend on probation. None of the time he spent on probation from the original charge will count, and the new six-year term began Thursday.

In late June 2017, Packley pled guilty to charges of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a minor. The incident leading to Packley’s original arrest began when Baxter County deputies responded to a 911 call reporting a domestic disturbance at a residence along Hickory Flats Lane on February 14, 2017.

According to court records, the deputies contacted a female victim who said she and the 35-year-old Packley, identified as her boyfriend, had been arguing during the evening and Packley had become increasingly belligerent.

The woman told deputies she had contacted Packley’s mother by telephone, and the woman told her to go to bed and leave Packley alone in hopes he would cool off. The victim said she was in bed when Packley began making accusations of various kinds against her. She said he had choked her and held her down on the floor for a time. She said she had held her young son between them at one point during the altercation, hoping the child’s presence would influence Packley to stop the attack.

She said she was eventually able to escape and fled the residence naked and on foot. She said as she was running, Packley had fired a rifle at her. She eventually made it to a neighbor’s house and was able to call 911.

When deputies spoke to Packley, he admitted firing the rifle, but said he shot it in the air and not in the direction of his fleeing girlfriend.

The victim, who requested the charges against Packley be dropped because she wanted the family to stay together, was in the courtroom on the day he entered his plea in June 2017 and received the original sentence of 48 months probation. She said on the day of the 2017 disturbance, Packley had been at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Fayetteville for treatment of PTSD-related mental issues. She was also in court Thursday as the new sentence was handed down.

She said during the treatment sessions, Packley was asked to confront situations he had been through and which caused him mental problems, and that he often came home from these sessions in what she described as a “bad mood.”

At the time of the sentencing in 2017, 14th Judicial District Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kerry Chism told Judge John Putman, despite the victim’s wishes to have the charges dropped, he did not feel the state should honor the request, since the guilty plea from Packley would prohibit him from being in possession of a firearm. “We have at least accomplished that in this case,” Chism told the court.

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