Carlos Davale Phillips

SAINT ROBERT, Mo. (May 31, 2012) — A fight at Sunset Village led to the arrest of a St. Robert man early Wednesday morning on domestic violence charges.

Carlos Davale Phillips, 35, faces five to 15 years in state prison if convicted of the Class B felony charge of first-degree domestic assault accusing him of striking a woman with whom he had a continuing relationship.

According to court documents, Phillips was initially detained by St. Robert police pending arrival of a county deputy, who at the time was on another call. The incident began when Pulaski County 911 dispatchers received a 911 call from the facility located on Highway Z near Exit 163 of Interstate 44. The St. Robert policeman said when he arrived, he forced entry into the apartment after hearing a woman yelling “stay away from me why won’t you leave me alone, get off of me” and after entering the apartment, found a man standing behind the refrigerator holding a black piece of wood.

The woman said she had been drinking with Phillips, but then “his attitude changed and he started yelling” and pushed her and called her names. She said she “felt the need to protect herself so she punched (Phillips) in the face to get him away from her.” Phillips then punched her in the face making her mouth bleed; she ran into the bathroom to escape and shut the door, but when she tried coming out again, he struck her in the back with a board with a piece of metal on it.

The woman was checked out by medics but she declined to go to an area hospital for treatment.

Sheriff’s logs indicate that the call came at 2:12 a.m.; emergency personnel left the scene by 3 a.m. Phillips was arrested at 2:33 a.m., transported to the Pulaski County Jail, and charged later in the day. He’s being held on a $100,000 bond issued by Associate Circuit Judge Greg Warren with surety by a bail bondsman allowed, according to court records, and a release condition of no contact with the victim.

Phillips has a prior history of not showing up in court on traffic charges, leading to multiple warrants being issued and subsequent arrests. According to sheriff’s logs, he had no vehicle operator status at the time of the Wednesday morning incident.

Court records show that Phillips pleaded guilty on Sept. 8, 2009, on two charges dating back two years earlier that, as the owner of a vehicle, he had allowed someone else to drive without insurance and failed to register the vehicle. Those two offenses, for which he was cited by sheriff’s deputies on Oct. 12, 2007, carried only fines of $91.50 and $59.50, but he failed to appear in court in March 2008. Associate Circuit Judge Colin Long issued two arrest warrants, one with a $500 bond lowered to $200 with a guilty plea and the other with a $500 cash-only bond or $130 with a guilty plea, and was arrested on Aug. 29, 2009, and appeared in court on Sept. 1. He pleaded guilty a few days later on Sept. 8 and was granted a month to pay his fines and court costs, but still failed to pay fines and court costs which by March 16, 2010, totaled $225 and $155 on the two separate citations. Deputies were unable to locate him despite four separate attempts to find him from January to March and were told he no longer lived at his previously stated address in St. Robert; Judge Long issued another arrest warrant on March 16.