WOODLAND — A Yolo County judge has upheld attempted murder and domestic violence charges against a Sacramento man accused of assaulting his girlfriend at her Davis apartment earlier this year.
Prosecutors say Ricardo Don Barkins strangled the woman into unconsciousness during the Feb. 13 altercation inside her apartment, causing great bodily injury that threatened her life. Barkins, 50, has denied the allegations.
The woman testified as the key witness against Barkins at his preliminary hearing Thursday in Yolo Superior Court, recalling that she began arguing with Barkins on the morning of the incident after he gave one of her cigarettes to a homeless person as they were leaving a local convenience store.
“We went back and forth with it,” continuing to fight after they returned to the apartment, the woman said under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Deanna Hays. The Enterprise is not naming her because she is an alleged domestic violence victim.
She said she told Barkins to leave the apartment, but he refused. She ultimately confronted him as he lay in her bed, and that’s when the violence began, she recalled.
“He just jumped off the bed and started strangling me,” wrapping both hands around her neck and squeezing it, she said. She said he also threatened her, saying, “B—-, you’re going to die today.”
The woman said as she fought back, Barkins punched her in the eye and strangled her again, briefly rendering her unconscious. A friend who was visiting the apartment pulled Barkins off her, and she fled to a neighbor’s apartment to call 911.
“Did you think you were going to die?” Hays asked the woman.
“Yes, I did,” she answered, weeping. “All I could think about was my child, and how someone you’ve been in a relationship with for four years would try to take you away from your son.”
Judge David Rosenberg, who presided over Thursday’s hearing, asked the woman how she would rank the pressure of the strangulation act on a scale of one to 10. “I would give it a 12,” she replied.
By the time Davis officers arrived at the scene, Barkins had allegedly stolen the woman’s car and fled to Sacramento, where police there apprehended him the following day with what they described as an “assault-style weapon” inside the vehicle.
Barkins first faced criminal charges in Sacramento County, pleading no contest to vehicle theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm in July in exchange for a four-year state prison term, according to online court records. He was then transferred to Yolo County to face his current charges.
Davis police Officer Fiona Wais, who interviewed the woman as she received treatment at the hospital as well as the following day, testified that she observed multiple injuries from the alleged assault, including scratches and swelling to the woman’s neck, a swollen left eye and torn fingernails.
“Her voice was raspy, and she was having a hard time breathing,” Wais said.
Under cross-examination by Barkins’ public defender, Emily Fisher, the woman acknowledged selling Barkins’ clothing and other belongings following his arrest, but noted that she had paid for them in the first place. “I bought everything,” she said.
“Is it fair to say he helped you with rent?” Fisher asked.
“Um, no,” the woman said.
Later, Fisher asked Rosenberg to find insufficient evidence for the attempted murder charge, but Rosenberg declined to do so.
“The neck is a very vulnerable part of the body. The victim lost consciousness and was very weak,” Rosenberg said. “A jury could determine that this is attempted murder. I will hold him to answer for the charge.”
Rosenberg also upheld counts of assault and battery, inflicting corporal injury and criminal threats, but found insufficient evidence for a false imprisonment charge.
Barkins, who remains in Yolo County Jail custody, returns to court Nov. 27 for further proceedings.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene