A California man was sentenced to less than three years in prison after prosecutors allowed him to plead no contest to a vicious attack on his ex-girlfriend in front of her toddler child earlier this summer.
Nathan James Sumpter’s plea was to charges of assault likely to cause great bodily injury, dissuading a witness, and a misdemeanor for violating a previous restraining order.
The Butte County District Attorney’s Office said that Sumpter, 28, went to the woman’s home on July 8, 2025 despite an active restraining order against him. When the victim called police, he hid “and threatened the victim and her family if she reported his presence.”
Then, when they left, he terrorized the victim for hours, punching her in the face and strangling her. The next morning, he “strangled her to the point of unconsciousness and stomped on her face in front of their two-year-old child.”
Only then, because the victim was no longer responding to him, did “a panicked Sumpter” call her aunt for help. At that point, the victim was rushed to a hospital, where doctors discovered a fractured eye socket.
Sumpter fled the home by that time and was later arrested.
According to Law&Crime District Attorney Michael Ramsey said that Sumpter’s attorney argued for probation for the heinous attack, but his office argued for a short stint in prison.
Ramsey “emphasized the insidious nature of domestic violence as it occurs out of sight behind closed doors and its negative effects on families and the community at large” but did not comment on how the no contest plea or the miniscule sentence would effect those families and communities.
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[Featured image: Nathan James Sumpter/Butte County District Attorney]
