BELFAST, Maine — A Stockton Springs man who pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife in February has been sentenced to serve a month in county jail.
Neil Nightingale, 59, had been arrested on Feb. 23, the day after the assault. The victim told a Maine State Police trooper that Nightingale had come home intoxicated, smashed the computer in the bedroom, grabbed her by the hair and threw her against the refrigerator, which dislodged some tiles on the kitchen floor. She also told police that he tried to choke her.
The woman allegedly left the house and then came back, telling Nightingale that she had called 911. She told police the next morning that he pulled out a handgun and threatened her and her cat, and that she “backed out of the home, begging for him not to shoot her,” according to a narrative from Trooper Benjamin Sweeney that was filed in Waldo County Superior Court in support of Nightingale’s arrest.
The woman allegedly showed Sweeney a significant amount of hair that had been yanked out of her head and a car windshield that she believed Nightingale had damaged.
Although Nightingale initially had been charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and domestic violence terrorizing, in addition to his other charges, those were dismissed by Justice Robert Murray.
Nightingale did plead guilty to domestic violence assault and two counts of criminal mischief, and Murray sentenced him earlier this month to pay $374 in restitution along with the month in jail.