Prosecutors worry boyfriend will post bail and flee if Columbus mom dies in hospital
Anthony Gates was arguing with his girlfriend in front of their three kids Oct. 3 when he grabbed her by the neck, put a gun to her head, and told her he should kill her, authorities said.
When he set the gun on a bed so he could choke her with both hands, the couple’s 6-year-old son got the weapon and tried to shoot his father to protect his mother, investigators said.
Instead, he accidentally shot his mother in the head.
Now the 27-year-old Columbus woman remains in critical condition at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, and boyfriend Anthony Maurice Gates remains held on assault and other charges in the Muscogee County Jail.
But all that could change.
Gates, 26, has been granted bonds on the charges against him, and prosecutors and police now face a worrying scenario: That the woman could die after Gates bonds out of jail, and he could flee before police can arrest him on a murder charge.
That’s the problem Assistant District Attorney Ray Daniel presented last week to Superior Court Judge Bobby Peters, asking for a bond high enough to keep Gates in jail, in case the victim does not survive.
“She is now in the hospital fighting for her life,” Daniel told Peters.
Because she’s a surviving victim of domestic violence, the Ledger-Enquirer is not disclosing the woman’s name for this report.
The shooting
Police learned of the shooting around 2:45 a.m. Oct. 4, when they were called to Piedmont Columbus Regional, where the woman was being treated in the emergency room.
She had been shot in her home at Alpine Apartments, off Cusseta Road at 4225 Alpine Drive, where she and Gates lived together with their children, the older two ages 10 and 11, officers said.
Arrested for aggravated assault on Oct. 7, Gates had a preliminary hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court two days later, when Detective Kelly Phillips testified the children saw Gates choking their mother when the altercation woke them up.
“They observed Gates in the bedroom with one hand on the victim’s throat and a gun to her head, telling the victim something to the effect of ‘I should kill you, but you’ve got kids,’” Phillips said.
When the woman gave her cell phone to a daughter and told the girl to call 911, Gates grabbed the phone and smashed it, the detective said. Then he set the gun on the bed and started choking his girlfriend with both hands, Phillips said.
“At this point the 6-year-old child, watching his mother actively being strangled by Gates, picked up the firearm, pointed it at Gates, and pulled the trigger, unfortunately striking his mother,” the officer testified.
She said Gates afterward admitted to police that he’d had the gun, and that he had choked the victim. Police confiscated the weapon.
It was not the couple’s first domestic dispute, Phillips said: Checking police reports filed under the woman’s name, investigators found two more family violence complaints naming Gates.
The Recorder’s Court judge ordered Gates held without bond on two counts of aggravated assault, three of third-degree child cruelty, and one count each of making terroristic threats, using a gun to commit a crime and obstructing a 911 call.
The bond
Gates was in Peters’ court for his bond hearing on Nov. 20, when defense attorney Michael Eddings argued Gates was not responsible for the shooting, because he didn’t pull the trigger.
Eddings told Peters that after the child grabbed Gates’ gun, both Gates and the mother stopped fighting and focused on the 6-year-old, pleading with him to hand over the firearm, and that’s when the shooting occurred.
Eddings said Gates maintains the bullet would have hit him, had he been choking the child’s mother.
Gates should be given a bond low enough to allow his release, so he can return to his job at a local hotel and as a bounty hunter, his attorney said.
Daniel countered Gates’ story did not match what the children reported. Each was questioned in a forensic interview at the Children’s Tree House Child Advocacy Center. The children since have been in state custody, Daniel said.
He said the victim’s sister, who lives in the Midwest, asked that Gates’ bond be at least $250,000.
Peters questioned the need to set a bond so soon, noting Gates would be back in court on a murder charge if the woman did not survive.
He would be charged with “felony murder,” which means causing another’s death during the commission of a felony. Because Gates attacked his girlfriend with the gun the child used, he can be held responsible for the homicide, Daniel said.
Peters set Gates’ bonds at a total of $142,500 — $50,000 on each count of aggravated assault; $1,500 on each charge of child cruelty; $10,000 on using a gun to commit a felony; $20,000 on terroristic threats; and $5,000 on obstructing a 911 call.
Victims of domestic or family violence can get help by calling a national hotline at 800-334-2836 or the local Hope Harbour shelter crisis line at 706-324-3850.
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 6:00 AM.