SHREVEPORT, La. — A Texas attorney has been sentenced to five years in a Louisiana prison for repeatedly punching his girlfriend, breaking her eye socket and knocking out a tooth.
Willlie Richardson Joseph Jr., 33, of Dallas was sentenced Friday immediately after pleading guilty to one count of battery of a dating partner with serious injury, the Caddo Parish District Attorney's Office said in a news release.
Joseph punched the woman repeatedly during an argument after a movie date on April 13, causing nerve damage, the statement said. It said she called 911 while he went into her Shreveport home, and he dragged her from the car and into the house while she was still talking to the operator.
The woman testified during the sentencing that she had to miss a month of work, and tried to hide her injuries from friends, co-workers and strangers.
Eight years would have been the maximum sentence, district attorney's spokesman John Andrew Prime said.
He said Joseph had been licensed to practice law in Louisiana since October 2015 and in Texas since November 2017. Dallas is about 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Shreveport.
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