Originally Posted by
WSBTV
ATLANTA -- Army reservist Tasha Hill denounced the sentencing of a man who attacked her at a Cracker Barrel restaurant.
Her attacker, Troy West, was sentenced to six-months in prison after pleading guilty to four misdemeanor counts on Friday.
Channel 2's Pam Martin visited southwest Atlanta’s New Calvary Missionary Baptist Church on Sunday, where Hill addressed the outcome of the trial. She said she was devastated by the sentencing.
“It’s an insult to me. It’s an interpretation to me that my self-value and my daughter’s self-value and our worth was very minimal,” Hill said.
West admitted to repeatedly hitting Hill after she told him not to hit her daughter with the restaurant’s entrance door last September. He even said it was sometimes OK to hit a woman, though not normally.
Hill said she and her daughter have been so disturbed by the incident that both have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome.
“I have had feelings, and my daughter, of intense fear, helplessness, increased anxiety … just overwhelmed,” she said.
In court, she cried that she never asked to be hit, but the prosecution’s case fell apart as the defense spotlighted Hill’s character.
West said Hill told him, “I'm a U.S. military soldier. I'll kill you.”
Two teens also testified that Hill had threatened their lives in an unrelated incident.
A Cracker Barrel customer said he witnessed the attack and that Hill spit on West before he hit her.
The Clayton County district attorney said Hill’s own attorney, Kip Jones, told her Hill had committed perjury on the stand by lying about meeting a Cracker Barrel employee for a meal.
Though Jones denied the claim in court, Hill said she has hired attorney Malaui Mel Davis to supersede him. Hill said Davis will help her pursue potential civil actions against Cracker Barrel and West.
“I need closure, emotionally and mentally, and my daughter does,” said Hill.
Reply With Quote