Domestic violence case shines light on victim, abuser roles

With October’s return of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the acknowledgment of the toll taken on its victims and the paths of abusers is in the forefront.

A recent Southwest Oklahoma case shed light on both.

On Thursday, Patric Houston Southern, 33, Cache, pleaded guilty in Comanche County District Court to a felony count of domestic abuse assault and battery — second and subsequent.

District Judge Scott D. Meaders followed the State’s recommendation and sentenced Southern to four years with the Department of Corrections with two years to serve in prison and two years suspended followed by two years of supervised probation. He will also have to attend 52 weeks of domestic abuse batterer’s classes, to include anger management, as well as undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation within 60 days of release and follow the recommendations.

Southern admitted guilt in the violent assault of his then-girlfriend on Jan. 28, 2023, at their home at 900 West E in Cache. Police described him as greeting them aggressively with his hair in his face, smelling strongly of alcohol and with his fists clenched while trying to keep them from coming inside, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The girlfriend told police Southern had punched holes in the door leading to the bedroom and had pressed a blanket into her throat, cutting off her breathing, the affidavit states. Her cheeks were red and she had burn marks on her chest and she said Southern tried to put a cigarette out on her cheek before the cherry had fallen onto her chest.

While throwing things around the home, Southern was heard by neighbors to be threatening to kill the woman, according to the affidavit.

It’s not Southern’s first time behind bars for abusing his partner.

Southern has a 2017 felony charge filed in Comanche County for domestic abuse. In making a guilty plea in July 2021 received a misdemeanor count and a one-year suspended sentence, records indicate. He also underwent 52 weeks of domestic violence classes.

In that case, the girlfriend, who had given birth shortly before the assault, had to be hospitalized for an extended period of time. It’s a fact the girlfriend from the latest case knew about from Southern’s friends and family, according to her victim’s impact statement. She said he’d learned from his classes “how to hide things better.”

The woman said she’d met Southern when she was 20 and in the first week of dating him, a friend who’d known Southern most of his life told of the prior assault. She wrote that he’d convinced her it didn’t happen, that he couldn’t have done it.

“The State failed that woman, and I refuse to let it happen again,” she wrote.

But then the first time Southern put his hands on her, she said she forgave him. The second time was two weeks later: “After that, I stopped counting,” she wrote. Neighbors hearing and seeing the acts of domestic violence led to police being called and forced them out of their first apartment, she said. It led to them living in a camper on his parents’ property. There was emotional abuse as well, she said.

“It took me almost three years to leave this situation,” she wrote. “And I am lucky to be alive because of it.”

After bonding out of jail for the latest case, Southern went into the Oklahoma Adult and Teen Challenge program. Executive Director Loren Shreffler wrote in a letter to the court that “he excelled at every level.” While in the program, she said, he traveled the state with the drug awareness team and spoke to youth and families about the dangers of addiction. She said he emerged as a leader and had become a mentor to students and interns.

In her victim’s impact statement, the girlfriend acknowledged Southern’s sobriety and attempts to better himself. She wrote that doesn’t mean he’s “fixed” and doesn’t excuse or forgive the wrong doings. She warned that if he doesn’t have consequences, she would not be his “last victim.”

“I’m coming forward to be the voice of thee women who no longer have one,” she concluded. “For the ones stuck in situations similar. For the ones who won’t know it’s too late to leave until it’s just that, too late.”