Uniontown man sentenced to 8-20 years for aggravated assault
Convicted in ex-girlfriend\'s assault
A Uniontown man was sentenced to eight to 20 years in prison Monday after severely beating a woman outside a store in Uniontown last September.
A Fayette County jury found Frank Jackson Powell-Chambers, 36, guilty on Sept. 9 of aggravated assault in the case, which happened outside Byers Market on Connellsville Street.
Powell-Chambers was arrested after surveillance video from outside the store showed him assaulting his ex-girlfriend Bree Davis, according to court documents.
Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele said Davis had suffered bruising and a concussion in the incident, during which Powell-Chambers slammed her head into the concrete and into a pole.
“She was very fortunate she did not have serious bodily injury,” he said.
Judge Steven Leskinen called the video “compelling” and said Powell-Chambers could have faced third-degree murder charges had Davis died from her injuries.
Davis did not testify at trial after Powell-Chambers made intimidating phone calls to her from jail, Aubele said.
“She had a previous case against him from a few weeks before that she dropped because she’s scared of him,” Aubele said. “But we were lucky to have this one on video, and we were not going to drop it when we had evidence that we could put in front of the jury.”
A jury took 11 minutes to convict Powell-Chambers, Aubele said, relying on the video and the testimony of two Uniontown officers who had arrived on scene “within about 20 seconds of it happening.”
At sentencing, Powell-Chambers described the sentence in profane terms, denying it was him on the video and saying he had been “railroaded.”
“My face isn’t even on the video or anything,” he said. “Eight years … I’ve got kids.”
Responding to Powell-Chambers, Leskinen said, “It appears you also have some issues curtailing your anger, even right now.”