A Clayton County judge sentenced Troy Dale West to six months in jail Friday in the beating of a woman at a Cracker Barrel restaurant last year.
The sentence was part of last-minute plea deal struck between West and the prosecution. Under the deal, three felonies that carried a maximum of 44 years in prison were dropped and four misdemeanors were lumped together.
The southwest Georgia businessman will serve about four and half months of the sentence because of 40 days he’s already served in the case.
West was accused of beating Army Reservist Tasha Hill at the Morrow Cracker Barrel in September 2009. He testified that Hill spat on him, which she denied.
“Where I’m from, Mr. West, it’s not good for a man to hit a woman," Superior Court Judge Geronda V. Carter said before handing down her decision. “Also, where I’m from, it’s not good to spit on a person. I can only imagine what my response would have been.”
Sheriff’s deputies led West away to begin serving his sentence.
The judge’s decision came on the third day of a trial filled with twists and turns. At one point during the reading of the plea, Hill stood up and asked for a mistrial because of a dispute with her attorney.
Hill gave a tearful statement before West’s sentencing, saying she had not received justice from the court nor an apology from him.
“You beat me down and you maligned my character,” she said, crying and screaming at West while on the stand. “You could have at least apologized for what you did.”
Before being sentenced, West told the court, “I don’t feel I’ve done anything wrong but I feel it’s in my best interest [to take the plea bargain].”
Before the plea deal, West spent an hour Friday telling his side of what happened during the explosive encounter at the restaurant.
West testified he was leaving the restaurant with his wife when Hill's daughter darted through the door.
"It was obvious she wasn't looking. She's being a child," he said. "I said ‘uh oh'. Then I saw the mom getting on her about not paying attention. I opened the door and invited them to come in ... she said, ‘No, you come on through.'"
"The last I'd seen of the child was when she had left the vestibule," West said. Then, he said, the mother turned to him "and said, ‘You almost hit my daughter with the door' and I said, ‘No she almost ran into it, but it's OK."
Shortly after that, West said, Hill told him, "‘I'm a U.S. military soldier. I'll kill you.' ... I tried to back off. As I started to move away she spits in my face. It happened very quickly."
Seconds later West said he countered with a punch and then Hill "came back" at him two more times and he hit her again. After she fell to the floor, West said Hill "started kicking me."
West's attorney, Atlanta criminal lawyer Tony Axam, used video from a closed-circuit camera at the Cracker Barrel to try to show his client had no ill will toward Hill or her daughter. He showed the jury about 20 seconds of frame-by-frame video of West holding open the door for Hill and her child.
Assistant district attorney Jason Green asked West, "Is it acceptable to hit a woman?"
West replied, "It depends."
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