By Michael Copley
Staff Writer
mcopley@powhatantoday.com

A Green Bay, Virginia, man convicted in Powhatan of assaulting the mother of his child, his third domestic assault in 20 years, was sentenced to two years in prison last week.

Derrick Wayne Van Hoose was charged with punching and stomping on Jennifer Dehart Oct. 10, 2010, outside of Dehart’s home on Genito Road. Dehart said Van Hoose became enraged when she told him she had started dating another man.

“He was outraged,” Dehart said.

Van Hoose’s lawyer, Ronald Gore, offered witnesses, including Van Hoose’s mother, who said they were with Van Hoose during the time he allegedly committed the assault. Gore suggested Dehart framed his client for injuries he didn’t cause.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Beasley said Dehart – who suffered “significant” injuries, including a bruise on her arm that resembled a footprint, according to the prosecutor – had no reason to lie.

“The only alternative is she beat the day lights out of herself to frame him,” Beasley told Circuit Judge James F. D’Alton.

At a hearing May 13, Beasley asked D’Alton to sentence Van Hoose, who was convicted of domestic assault in Powhatan Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in 2005 and 2007, at the high end of the guidelines – two years and 11 months.

There’s “no doubt” Van Hoose is “a danger” to the victim, Beasley said.  He has “a long and consistent history of violence against women.”

D’Alton suspended three years of the five-year sentence he handed down to Van Hoose May 13. The judge also ordered Van Hoose to pay $2,400 to the victim to cover medical bills that reportedly resulted from the assault.

Gore was skeptical of the medical costs the victim submitted, and he said her victim impact statement, which is used by the judge during sentencing, “exaggerated what the evidence showed at trial.”