MAN SENTENCED TO 20 YEARSFOR BAT ATTACK ON WOMAN

JACKSON -- A Cape Girardeau man received a 20-year prison sentence Thursday for attacking a woman with a baseball bat in her apartment last fall.

Jeramy Todd Bobbett, 23, had pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in April. The felony crime had a range of punishment between 10 and 30 years, Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said.

Bobbett's attorney, Pat McMenamin, had asked Circuit Judge John Grimm to consider his client's age and drug habit in determining the sentence. "We don't believe that this is the sort of thing that would have happened if he had been in his right mind," McMenamin told Grimm.

Shortly after 7 a.m. on Oct. 27, Bobbett broke into the 21-year-old woman's apartment on North Frederick Street 10 minutes after her husband left for work, Swingle said. The woman, who was in bed, heard the door open. She said within 10 seconds Bobbett was entering the bedroom with a baseball bat, ordering her to keep quiet.

The woman screamed, and Bobbett attempted to strike her in the head with the bat. She blocked the blow with her hand, which Bobbett broke in two places.

If she hadn't raised her hand, this could have been a homicide, Swingle said.

As she screamed, Bobbett hit her twice with the bat on her legs while she kicked at him. Fearing that someone heard the screams, Bobbett ran out.

Bobbett told the judge he took complete responsibility for his actions and understood whatever apology he made would be inadequate. "I was just out of my mind on drugs," Bobbett told the court.

Bobbett had only intended to break into the apartment, steal valuables and leave, McMenamin said.

The victim told Grimm she continues to have flashbacks and is too afraid to jog by herself anymore.

Her prior tae kwon do training allowed the victim to block Bobbett's bat, keeping her injuries to a minimum, she said.

"I felt like he was trying to hit me over the head to take my life," she told the judge.

Bobbett had served 40 days in jail early in 1999 after pleading guilty to invasion of privacy. After drilling a hole in his apartment wall, he would observe a 22-year-old neighbor as she bathed. It was a month before she noticed.

"This shows a man moving from invading a young woman's privacy to violently attacking another woman," Swingle said. "Judge Grimm has truly made the community a safer place for young women."