A Shreveport man found guilty of domestic violence crimes earlier this month must serve almost 15 years in prison, a Caddo District Court judge has ordered.
Darnell Caldwell, 37, was sentenced to 13 years at hard labor Tuesday, April 30, 2024 by ad hoc District Judge John Robinson for domestic abuse battery with a dangerous weapon and causing serious bodily injury. Judge Robinson decided Caldwell’s guilt in a bench trial April 17. Judge Robinson also ordered Caldwell to 18 months in prison on each of two instances of domestic abuse battery with child endangerment. The sentences involving the children are to be served concurrent with each other but consecutive to the bodily injury sentence.
On December 15, 2021, Caldwell threw an aerosol can through a car window, striking his victim, a woman with whom he had a five-year relationship and shared three children. The woman suffered a broken nose, a broken eye socket and a broken sinus cavity. Two of their children, a 4-year-old girl and a newborn baby girl, were inside the vehicle when Caldwell threw the can.
Judge Robinson noted that Caldwell had attacked the victim during an incident three months earlier. He also noted the victim’s children had witnessed the attack, and he spoke to how witnessing such acts can damage children’s mental well-being..
Caldwell was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Britney A. Green and Ron Christopher Stamps of the Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Special Victims Unit. He was defended by Royal Alexander and David Knadler.
The case was docket No. 386768.