Fall River Man Convicted of Assaulting a Woman Over $40

FALL RIVER (WBSM) — A  Fall River man was convicted of violently assaulting a woman over $40. 

Last week, Charles Silvester, 54, was sentenced to three years in state prison. He pled guilty to indictment charging him with assault and battery to collect a loan, assault and battery, threats, assault, threats, assault and a civil rights violation. 

The charges date back to April 4, 2022, after Fall River Police were dispatched to the area behind the Taco Bell parking lot on Plymouth Avenue regarding an assault on a female. Police said they discovered a homeless encampment and a woman was yelling and crying in pain inside a tent with her nose bloody and swollen. 

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She told police that a man by the name of “Charles” dragged her out of her tent and punched her in the face repeatedly while asking, “Where’s my money?” 

According to a witness, Silvester woke him up in his tent looking for the victim, and the witness then saw him punch the woman in the face two times. 

Silvester told the officers that he had gone into the woods attempting to get his $40 that he let a female borrow and stated that he “slapped the (expletive) out of her.” 

Upon arrest, Silvester was confrontational and aggressive with officers and attempted to spit on an officer, headbutt them and called a female officer a racial slur.

“This defendant engaged in violent and senseless conduct against a woman, supposedly over just $40,” District Attorney Quinn said. “The interaction with police was both disturbing and very offensive. The defendant is a repeat offender who has been a thorn in the side of the community and needs to be kept off the street to protect them.” 

Silvester has a lengthy criminal history of jail sentences for assaults, larcenies, breaking and entering and driving while intoxicated. This will be his first state prison sentence.