A St. Inigoes man has been sentenced to six years in jail after pleading guilty to “Second-Degree Assault.” St. Mary’s County Circuit Court Judge David Densford on Wednesday sentenced Kevin Bonds, 40, to 10 years, but suspended four of the years. The sentence was higher than the 18 months to five years in jail guidelines. Ten years is the maximum sentence allowed in Maryland for the offense.
Bonds was arrested after an incident on June 6 of last year in which police attempted to serve a warrant for failure to pay child support. The incident was described as follows in a press release at the time from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office: “While deputies were attempting to serve the warrants, Bonds emerged from a bedroom, brandished a long gun and pointed it at a Deputy. When the weapon was observed, a cover officer fired several shots from his agency weapon. Bonds was not struck by the shots. Deputies established a perimeter around the residence and members of the Emergency Services Team (EST) and Critical Incident Negotiations Team (CINT) attempted to resolve the incident. Bonds was eventually apprehended by EST members and transported to the St. Mary’s County Detention Center.”
Bonds has an almost two-decade-long criminal history in the county, including, according to Judge Densford, 17 convictions, of which seven were drug related\ and four involved fighting with police. The judge noted that didn’t include the 11 charges that were dropped by the state along the way.
The judge before sentencing quizzed State’s Attorney Richard Fritz on why the state accepted a plea to a lesser second-degree assault charge, particularly since police officers were involved and Bonds alleged held his girlfriend hostage at knife point. Fritz said it may have been difficult to get a first-degree conviction since the weapon was a BB gun and since the girlfriend did not want to testify.
Fritz quickly added that the officers didn’t know at the time that the weapon was a BB gun and he also admitted that a BB gun can cause serious physical damage. He said when the officer fired his weapon during the arrest the shot could have hit someone fatally. “But for the grace of God he missed,” Fritz said.
Fritz asked the judge to impose the maximum ten-year sentence.
The judge in sentencing Bonds methodically went through the litany of his previous offenses. He noted the defense assertion that the death of Bond’s father in 2007 may have triggered a return to criminal activity. But Densford pointed out that Bonds had committed crimes both before and after the death of the father. He said Bonds’ father had left his son with an inheritance that involved a monthly check and that he also was receiving a disability check, so he had no excuse that he needed the money in committing the crimes. Bonds had been given opportunities in the past but he didn’t take advantage, the judge said.
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