By Ray King
A $100,000 bond was set Monday for a Pine Bluff man accused of breaking into his former girlfriend’s apartment and choking her.
Pine Bluff District Judge John Kearney set the bond after ruling prosecutors have probable cause to charge Robert Shorter, 44, with aggravated assault on a family or household member and residential burglary,
Reading from an affidavit from Detective Jason Boykin, Deputy Prosecutor Jay Gerard said police were called to an apartment in the 2100 block of South Blake Street at 5 a.m. Saturday. The female victim said she was sitting in the living room when she heard banging on her window, then someone later identified as Shorter kicking her door. She said Shorter was her former boyfriend and they had separated four days earlier.
Gerard said the woman told police Shorter broke a window using a pole, climbed in the apartment, and began choking her while she was sitting on the couch. She said a female friend who had arrived at the apartment pretended to have a gun and scared Shorter off and he left in a vehicle.
Court records showed that Shorter is on parole stemming from convictions in 2015 for second-degree battery and failure to register as a sex offender and a hold has been placed on him by the department of community corrections.
Shorter was ordered to have no contact with the victim and to stay away from the apartment on Blake Street. The Public Defender’s Office was appointed to represent him.
