By Ray King
A $50,000 cash only bond was set Wednesday for a White Hall man accused of threatening his former girlfriend and breaking a headlight on her vehicle with a metal pole.
Jefferson County District Judge Kim Bridgforth set the bond after ruling prosecutors have probable cause to charge Melvin Ricky Sanders, 53, with aggravated assault on a family or household member.
Reading from an affidavit by Pine Bluff Police Detective Keith Banks, Deputy Prosecutor Britaney Akel said at about 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the victim filed a report at the police station alleging that she and Sanders had gotten into an altercation and he had taken a metal pole and struck the front passenger headlight of her vehicle, shattering it. She said her daughter was in the vehicle at the time.
Akel said at 2:57 a.m., police reviewed video footage from the casino which showed the victim pull up to the entrance, retrieve her daughter, and rush inside the building.
Court records showed that Sanders has multiple prior felony convictions and is on a suspended imposition of sentence in a recent case.
He was ordered to have no contact with the victims and refused Bridgforth’s offer to appoint the public defender to represent him.
