Deanna N. met defendant at church in 2011. She was 17 years old; he was 19. They became friends and spent time together hanging out, playing basketball, and going out to eat. They began dating during Deanna’s senior year in high school. It was fun and adventurous. Defendant took Deanna “outside of [her] bubble,” referring to the religious environment in which she had been raised. They began having sex on her 18th birthday and began using marijuana together. Deanna felt like she had someone she could do anything with and “had no complaints.” They eventually expressed their love to each other.
After about a year, defendant began saying things that hurt Deanna. He told her she was not smart because she would get lost driving around town. He insulted her intelligence, saying he deserved someone smarter than her. Deanna would “talk smack back to him,” and things would escalate. Defendant would yell and lock her out of the room during arguments. Later, defendant accused her of “leeching off of him;” he was working and going to school and she was not. They would argue for hours.
Their first physical confrontation happened while they were driving. Defendant was insulting her intelligence, so she slapped his glasses off his face. He slapped her or backhanded her and gave her a bloody nose. He apologized to her. The hit scarred her nose.
An argument on December 3, 2012, became physical. Deanna damaged defendant’s car key, and they began arguing about it outside at the bottom of cement stairs to his family’s apartment. Defendant grabbed Deanna’s foot and tried to take off her shoes which he had given her as an early Christmas present. Deanna fell. She tried to kick defendant in the face, but he was able to take off one of her shoes. She ran up into his apartment to gather her things to leave. Defendant followed her into the apartment and slapped her in the face. She started bleeding from her nose, and she went into the bathroom to wash her face.
Deanna locked the door, but defendant was able to open it. He came inside the bathroom and told Deanna to take a shower. She refused. He grabbed her hair and again told her to take a shower. Deanna again refused. Defendant grabbed a brush and hit her on the head with it. He left the room, and Deanna showered.
The police arrived, and they asked Deanna if she wanted defendant arrested. She did not because she cared for him and did not think it was necessary. They nonetheless arrested him. The arresting officer testified that while he was there, Deanna told him she overhead defendant tell his mother, “Fine, call the police. If I’m going to go to jail, I’m going to hurt her good.” Defendant pleaded no contest to one count of misdemeanor battery and was sentenced to probation.
The two had few contacts after this incident for a number of months until Deanna began contacting him. She had started school and a job in autumn 2013, and she let him know she was interested in seeing him. They socialized and resumed their sexual relationship. In 2014, Deanna learned that defendant was seeing a woman by the name of Michelle, but she continued seeing defendant. In October of that year, she also began dating a man named Charley, but that relationship ended when Charley learned about her ongoing relationship with defendant.
Deanna testified that defendant was incarcerated during 2015 and 2016 for beating up his friend, Alvin. Deanna visited defendant in jail and wrote him letters. They discussed the feelings they had for each other. After his release, defendant stayed with Deanna for a couple of months. They continued their sexual relationship. She became pregnant and later terminated the pregnancy. She asked him to leave in July 2016 after learning he was being dropped off at her apartment by different women. While they had been seeing each other, defendant was physically abusive. He would punch Deanna in the arm or leg, leaving a bruise. After he left her apartment, Deanna learned defendant had a girlfriend named Vanessa and was having sex with other women.
In August 2016, Deanna and her mother were changing the locks on Deanna’s apartment because Deanna had given defendant a key. Defendant showed up and they got into an argument. Defendant stole Deanna’s bong. While Deanna tried fighting for it, defendant spit in her face.
During this time, Deanna and Charley had maintained an on-again, off-again relationship. He moved to Los Angeles in September, and she considered moving there. But around Thanksgiving, defendant sent Deanna an e‑mail expressing his feelings for her and that he loved her. Hearing what she had always wanted to hear from defendant, Deanna decided not to move and arranged to meet with defendant to talk about the e‑mail.
When they met, Deanna told defendant she was not moving. He asked if she had had sex recently with Charley. She said she had, but she had ended that relationship and wanted to make things work with defendant on a more serious level. In response, defendant said he could not stay with her. He felt betrayed because she had always told him she would be faithful to him. Nonetheless, they decided to try to have a relationship again. They spent time together, including having sex. In messages and through voice
