Little Rock man ordered jailed indefinitely after estranged wife found injured at home

Michael Kay Vinson II
Michael Kay Vinson II

A Little Rock man who complained that his estranged wife has framed him for domestic violence was ordered jailed indefinitely on Wednesday, his 36th birthday, days after police reported finding the woman suffering from facial injuries at his home.

Michael Kay Vinson II testified that he doesn't know how Jaquonna Hardaway got hurt at his residence at 3421 Green Drive on Jan. 5.

He testified that he not only never touched Hardaway that day but that he had also refused to talk to her, saying that he wouldn't even open his front door when she went to the home.

"I didn't do that," Vinson said when deputy prosecutor Michelle Quillen confronted him with a police photograph of the woman's swollen and bloody face. The picture had been taken while she was in an ambulance outside his home.

Quillen asked how the 32-year-old woman wound up looking that way.

"Any evidence that I did that? Any witnesses? I didn't think so," Vinson responded.

According to testimony, police arrested Vinson that day after officers found Hardaway, her face heavily swollen and bleeding, at the residence.

Hardaway, who did not attend Wednesday's proceeding, told officers at the time that Vinson had threatened her with a gun and hit her with something, possibly the weapon, according to police testimony. She said she lived at the residence and gave officers a key to get inside.

Vinson has been court-ordered to stay away from Hardaway since his April 14 arrest at their former home at 1603 S. Pierce St. over accusations that he held a knife to the woman's throat and threatened to kill her.

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A pending divorce petition filed by Vinson states that the couple were married in April 2013 in Portland, Ore., but separated the day of his arrest in April. Their two sons are 3 and 7 years old.

He was released on bond to await trial on charges from that April arrest of second-degree domestic battering, aggravated assault on a family member and terroristic threatening, felonies that together carry a potential 22-year prison sentence.

But prosecutors argued that the arrest last week was grounds to return Vinson to jail for violating Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright's order barring Vinson from having any contact with Hardaway.

Vinson was released from jail Monday after posting bail, only to be re-arrested Tuesday at the request of prosecutors. Wright concluded Wednesday's hearing by ordering Vinson to be jailed at least until his trial, which is set for March. He faces misdemeanor charges from last week's arrest, with trial on those counts set for April.

One of the officers who arrested Vinson last week testified that officers found him in a closet and that he directed them to a nearby plastic bin holding two BB guns. Officer Robin Marquez also told the judge that Vinson complained that Hardaway is "always lying" to get him in trouble.

Questioned by defense attorney Justin Cloar, Vinson told the judge that he had tried to ignore Hardaway when she went to his home last week, stating that he refused to let her inside and wouldn't speak to her.

"I was playing defense, you're not getting in," he said.

He said he went into the bathroom when he saw the flashing police lights, and he questioned how officers had the authority to enter his home without a warrant. He said he told them about the BB guns so they wouldn't be surprised by finding them.

Vinson testified that he didn't call the police that night because they always take Hardaway's word over his. She made up a story that got him arrested last year, he told the judge. He denied that she lived with him or that he'd ever given her a key to his home.

Vinson said Hardaway had broken into his house at least twice in December, once when he refused to let her in to pick up one of their sons because she did not have a police escort with her like she was supposed to. He said she used a rake to break a window, then beat him with the gardening tool.

Vinson said Hardaway also rammed his car several times with her own vehicle while their two sons were in her car with her, but that police did not arrest her then.

About a week after that, he told the judge, Hardaway broke in again through a window and chased him out of the house before tackling him in his front yard.

Court records show that Hardaway was arrested Dec. 12 on a misdemeanor domestic battering charge in which Vinson is listed as the victim, but details of the allegations against her were not immediately available. She is to stand trial on that charge in April, and records show that she's been ordered by Little Rock District Judge Alice Lightle to stay away from Vinson.

In a December petition for an order of protection, Vinson described the Dec. 12 encounter as an attempt on his life. He withdrew the petition about two weeks later, stating in a handwritten motion that Hardaway is "making me nervous and she has my children now so I have to play it cool."

Hardaway also filed for a protection order, saying she suffered a concussion and shoulder injury in the Dec. 12 encounter after Vinson tackled her and kicked her at their home. She said he has threatened to murder her and pour acid on her remains so her body couldn't be found, the petition states.

But she withdrew her petition after about a week in a handwritten motion, which said she was going to go back to Portland and could not attend a scheduled hearing on the petition.

Court records also show that Hardaway has petitioned the court three times over 10 months to commit Vinson to the Arkansas State Hospital, claiming he is mentally ill and a danger to himself or others.

She declined to follow through with her first petition in March. A petition she filed in December was dismissed because Vinson was not served with notice of the filing.

Her third petition, filed Monday, states that he has bipolar disorder, refuses to take his medication and tried to shoot her Jan. 4. A hearing on that petition is set for Friday.

Metro on 01/12/2017

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