A 57-year-old Taunton man who broke into his ex-girlfriend's home, set her personal property on fire, and violently assaulted her was sentenced Tuesday in Fall River Superior Court to serve up to five years in state prison, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III announced.

Isidro Batista pleaded guilty to indictments charging him with aggravated assault and battery with serious bodily injury, malicious destruction of property, breaking and entering, and domestic assault and battery.

According to the DA's office, the defendant and victim were in a six-month dating relationship that had recently ended at the time of the May 13, 2018 incident. The defendant broke into the woman's house and started a fire in her home while she was at her daughter's First Communion. He then brutally beat her once she got home.

Quinn's office says the victim on that day arrived to find her home in disarray with smoke filling the air. She saw papers on the stove, smoldering and turning to ash. The papers were her immigration documents, passport, airline tickets to Portugal, and cash. The defendant ambushed her, covered her mouth, and said he was going to kill her. When she broke away and ran outside, Batista chased her, slapped her phone from her hand, tackled her, pulled out large clumps of her hair, and punched her in the face. A male neighbor ran over and subdued Batista until police arrived. The attack left the victim with broken facial bones, missing teeth, and bruises.

The case was prosecuted by ADA Courtney Cahill, chief of Quinn's Domestic Violence Unit. In court, Cahill argued for eight-to-ten years while the defense pushed for a two-year prison term. Judge Thomas J. Perrino sentenced the defendant to four-and-a-half to five years in state prison, followed by three years of supervised probation. The probationary terms include wearing a GPS monitoring device, staying away from the victim and completing a domestic batterers counseling program.

"This was a brutal case of domestic violence. The defendant even chased the victim outside and continued to pummel her. Fortunately, a witness had the courage to intervene and stop the violent assault. I commend him for that. This defendant clearly belongs off the street based on his very violent conduct," District Attorney Quinn said.

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