NEW BOSTON, Texas–A man who abused his girlfriend in 2020 and who has been convicted of previous domestic violence assaults was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison by a jury in Bowie County.
Carlos Romeo Craig, 37, was found guilty by the jury of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, family violence. Assistant District Attorney Bradley Akins said the second-degree felony punishment range was upped to that for a first-degree felony based on a prior battery conviction involving a different woman in Miller County, Arkansas, just over the state line from Bowie County in Texarkana, Arkansas.
Craig faced five to 99 years or life at sentencing and the jury opted to go with the maximum.
“Carlos Craig has been abusing women for far too long,” Akins said, noting that the jurors tapped to decide the case were fair and willing to dole out a tough punishment.
“When the evidence is overwhelming, we can place the faith in our community to give justice, and that’s exactly what they did in this case,” Akins said. “The community is that much more protected with Mr. Craig off the streets for good.”
Jurors were asked to consider evidence that Craig began punching and striking the victim as the two rode together in a car on their way to an apartment in the 3100 block of Magnolia Street in Texarkana, Texas, at about 5:30 p.m. on July 11, 2020, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The victim was so fearful that she twice attempted to leap from the moving 2006 Hyundai to avoid punches coming from Craig inside the car.
An investigator with the Texarkana Texas Police Department noted in the report that the victim was hard to understand because of her physical condition when he attempted to interview her at a local hospital the night of the assault but that she was able to relay that after striking her in the face, Craig ended up “running over her right foot while dragging her underneath the vehicle because he refused to stop, causing pain,” the affidavit states.
Craig is being held in the Bowie County jail until he is transported to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to begin serving his life sentence.
