A Pulaski County man who served 92 months for possession of a firearm by a felon is headed back to federal prison for 18 months after he admitted to numerous violations of the terms of his supervised release, including two incidents in which he was accused of using physical violence against his girlfriend.
Michael Shon Holbert, 41, of North Little Rock, was convicted of one count of possession of a firearm by a felon in 2016 and was released from prison last December. According to court records, a North Little Rock Police Department incident report dated June 27 alleged that Holbert attacked his girlfriend on May 30, choking her. According to the report, the woman told police during a traffic stop that Holbert had pushed her and become verbally aggressive toward her while he pinned her body against a counter in their apartment that same day.
Holbert was also accused of failing drug tests on eight occasions, failure to call the probation office on four occasions, failure to report to the probation office on two occasions, failure to submit urine samples for drug screens on four occasions and leaving drug treatment at Recovery Centers of Arkansas against the instructions of the probation office.
Prior to a supervised release revocation hearing in federal court in Little Rock on Wednesday, Holbert was escorted into a courtroom by U.S. marshals to sit with his attorney, Grant Ballard of Clarendon.
For a brief time, Holbert could be heard arguing with Ballard, apparently over whether Holbert would speak in his own defense.
"As far as making a statement I'd recommend you don't," Ballard could be overheard saying to Holbert. "If you make a statement you'd better just apologize. Don't make it harder on yourself."
As Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. opened the hearing, he outlined how it would go, saying there were a number of allegations of "things done not exactly right," to consider.
"There's the big issue of this alleged domestic violence incident," Marshall said.
Marshall advised Holbert that he could be jailed for up to two years and ordered to serve up to three years' supervised release minus the amount of jail time he may receive.
"If I plead guilty to this today, is it over with?" Holbert asked. "Is there anything backdooring me somewhere else?"
Marshall said he could not make that determination.
"I don't know as much about the situation as the lawyers do, so I can't really give you advice about that," he said.
"I asked my lawyer a while ago about this thing and he said he didn't know," Holbert said. "I'm trying to figure like we can cut it short or take the long way. No disrespect, that's the only issue I've got."
Following a brief consultation with Ballard and Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Mazzanti, Holbert decided to plead to all of the allegations with the exception of one battery allegation after it was decided Holbert may not have intentionally injured his girlfriend on one occasion that had been reported as a battery.
"Is that what you want to do?" Marshall asked. "Admit to all of these allegations and get it over with?"
"Yes, sir," Holbert said.
Marshall sentenced Holbert to 18 months in prison on the revocation and, on the advice of both attorneys, did not add any additional supervised release time in order to allow Holbert to leave for Texas to live with a brother once he leaves prison.
"The admitted violations are serious, but I think you'll find with Mr. Holbert that he has a severe addiction," Ballard said. "He would like to serve out his time, move to Texas and start over."