Three people have been sentenced to prison in a brutal New Year’s Eve assault that left a man blind in one eye. Franklin Robinson, 29; his girlfriend, 25-year-old Tashemia Beal; and their friend, 20-year-old Arnise Wilson, were sentenced Wednesday in D.C. Superior Court.
Their victim was Beal’s former boyfriend and the father of her two daughters.
Prosecutors said the dispute started when the man dropped off the daughters at Beal’s apartment at about 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2009. Their relationship had grown hostile, and it was the first time the couple had seen each other in more than six months.
Beal and Wilson had a verbal fight with him then, and Wilson threatened to beat the man.
Hours later, prosecutors said, Beal and Robinson saw the man in a store parking lot. They again threatened him, but saw a police officer in the parking lot and drove away.
The dispute turned violent when Beal called her ex-boyfriend at about 7:30 p.m. and told him she was outside his home on Astor Place SE, prosecutors said.
The man saw Beal standing in the street and Wilson by his car, holding a metal pole. He told his fiancee to call 911, and he went outside.
In the street, Wilson tried to strike him with a pole. The man grabbed the pole, but was then hit in the head with a brick by Robinson’s brother, David. Wilson struck him in the legs with a pole, and he fell to the ground.
Franklin Robinson then jumped on the man. According to prosecutors, Franklin Robinson kicked, punched and stomped on the man’s face and body. David Robinson punched the man in the ribs and Wilson struck him in the face and body with a metal pole. Beal stood with the group and continued yelling at the victim.
All four fled the scene as police arrived.
The attack left the man with a fracture, lacerations and a torn retina in his right eye, which has made him permanently blind, according to prosecutors.
A D.C. jury convicted Franklin Robinson, Beal and Wilson in March of aggravated assault while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon and destruction of property. Superior Court Judge Robert Richter sentenced all three to prison.
Robinson was ordered to serve six years and Beal and Wilson were each sentenced to two-and-a-half years.
David Robinson pleaded guilty in October 2010 and is serving a three-year prison sentence.
