HOT SPRINGS -- A parolee who attacked his girlfriend and her sister last year, beating both of them with his cane and fracturing the sister's skull, pleaded guilty last week in Garland County Circuit Court.
William Maxfield Harris, 58, who was set to stand trial May 1, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree battery and was sentenced to five years in prison, with the entire sentence suspended, while an additional felony count of second-degree domestic battery was withdrawn.
Harris, who was on parole from a 2007 conviction in Pulaski County for possession of a controlled substance, meth, and manufacture of a controlled substance, was fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $170 in court costs. A court order barring him from contact with the victims also was issued.
Harris, who lists a McClendon Street address, remained in custody Wednesday on a parole hold.
According to the probable-cause affidavit, on July 18 about 3 a.m. Hot Springs police officers were flagged down in the 300 block of McClendon Street.
A woman, 34, there told officers that her live-in boyfriend, Harris, had beaten her and her sister, 38, after the couple had argued over her attempts to leave the residence.
She said the two began to struggle when she told him her sister was picking her up. She said he punched her in the nose and bit her on the left shoulder and then continued hitting her. She said he used his walking cane to hit her about four times in the back of her head, causing a laceration, and knocking her unconscious at one point.
When she woke up, her sister had arrived and the fighting continued. Harris pulled a knife at one point and attempted to stab her, cutting her on the right forearm. She said her sister got in between them and he hit the sister in the head with his cane hard enough to knock her unconscious for several minutes and caused a large knot to form on the right side of her head.
When her sister woke up, the two got out of the house and flagged down the officers.
Both women were transported to National Park Medical Center where the girlfriend received several staples for the laceration on her head and was released. Her sister suffered a skull fracture and bleeding on the brain that required surgery on July 19.
Harris was arrested on Aug. 15 and held in lieu of $25,000 bond. He pleaded innocent to the charges on Oct. 22 and had remained in custody since then.
Metro on 03/31/2019