A Superior Court judge sentenced a 41-year-old Wilmington man to a total of 9 years in prison as a habitual offender for beating a pregnant woman. Deputy Attorneys General Cari Chapman and Anna Currier secured the sentence for David Jewell. In September 2017, Jewell and his girlfriend, who was pregnant at the time, began fighting as Jewell drove the woman home from work. Jewell pulled the woman’s hair, repeatedly pushed her head against the window, and repeatedly punched her in the stomach with a closed fist. Jewell received an 8-year prison sentence for his March 2018 guilty plea to Assault Second Degree, plus an additional year in prison for violating probation on a Tampering With a Witness conviction from 2013 related to stalking his previous girlfriend for which he served 5 years in prison. All of Jewell’s previous felony convictions were domestic violence related. Domestic violence social worker Stacey Murphy and DOJ investigator Brian Daly were part of the prosecution team.
A Lawrenceville, NJ man, still on parole from burglaries committed 30 years ago, will spend the next 14 years in prison after sentencing as a habitual offender on two separate cases. In January 2017, Daniel Woods, 56, working as a subcontractor at a synagogue on Washington Street in Wilmington, stole audio and kitchen equipment, along with tools from a contractor doing repairs at the building. A short time later, the items turned up in a Wilmington pawnshop. A few weeks later, Woods kicked in the front door of a home in the 500 block of Dogtown Road in Townsend and stole CDs and jewelry from the home. In September 2017, a Superior Court jury convicted Woods of Receiving Stolen Property and Selling Stolen Property for the synagogue break-in, and another jury convicted Woods of Burglary Second Degree, Theft Greater Than $1500, and Criminal Mischief in March 2018. A judge sentenced Woods on both cases to a total of 14 years in prison including the completion of the KEY substance abuse program, followed by 6 months of either work release or home confinement, then one year of probation. Deputy Attorney General Matthew Frawley prosecuted the cases.
Deputy Attorney General Jan van Amerongen secured a guilty plea from a 32-year-old Wilmington man on Attempted Rape Third Degree and Assault in a Detention Facility charges. In February 2016, Dejuan Harris tried to rape a woman who invited him back to her Elsmere home after meeting him. The woman forced Harris to leave her home after stabbing him in the groin. While being held at the Howard Young Correctional Institution in July 2017, Harris attacked a correctional officer, punching him with a closed fist in the side of the face. Harris faces between 4 and 33 years in prison when sentenced by a Superior Court judge in August. Harris will also register as a Tier III sex offender.