POTTSVILLE - For more than two hours, Kyle C. Kent denied Wednesday in Schuylkill County Court that he deliberately did anything last September to hurt his ex-wife.
"I did not beat her. I did not elbow her. I did not kick her," Kent, 32, of Mount Carmel, testified to the jury and Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin on the third day of his trial on seven charges stemming from his alleged attack against Melissa Kent.
In a calm voice, Kyle Kent told of an on-again, off-again relationship that he said was marred by Melissa Kent's drug use and of an incident that he said was caused by her brandishing a gun at him.
"I smacked her arm down real good," he said in describing his version of how Melissa Kent suffered her injuries. "I smashed her. I hit her hard."
Kyle Kent is charged with aggravated assault, kidnapping, criminal trespass, stalking, unlawful restraint, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.
State police at Frackville said he went to the Girardville home of Ronald T. Krick, Melissa Kent's boyfriend, about 6 p.m. Sept. 18, grabbed and assaulted his ex-wife, dragged her to the sport-utility vehicle he was driving, continued assaulting her in the SUV, drove to a road near Aristes, Columbia County, and finished his assault.
Melissa Kent suffered a fracture in her face and numerous other injuries, police said.
In Kyle Kent's first trial, a jury on June 7 found him not guilty of burglary and terroristic threats, while Dolbin, who also presided over that trial, found him guilty of the summary offenses of criminal mischief and harassment. The jury could not reach a verdict on the seven remaining charges.
Because there was no verdict on the seven remaining charges, Kyle Kent can be retried on them without violating the constitutional prohibition on double jeopardy.
Kyle Kent said the only time he hit Melissa Kent was in self-defense when she tried to fire a gun at him outside Krick's 334 E. Mahanoy Ave. residence.
"She dropped. She took a couple steps, fell down the bank," he testified. "I really didn't mean to do that. I just reacted to the gun."
He testified that he took her to his mother's house in Mount Carmel, denying that he drove her to the road near Aristes. He said his mother, Mary O'Donnell, cleaned her up and took her to Geisinger-Shamokin Hospital.
Kyle Kent also denied doing any damage to, or even being in, Krick's house that night.
He said he did send 62 text messages on Sept. 18 to his ex-wife, but that he only wanted to talk with her. He said Krick is a bad influence on his ex-wife and that she needs to stop using drugs.
"When I was in her life, she was clean," Kyle Kent testified.
During an often contentious cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Rebecca A. Elo, the defendant said the text messages were intended as a way to get Melissa Kent to return to him.
"I laid it on thick. It's embarrassing. There's nothing threatening there," he said.
He also said that even though his ex-wife had pointed a gun at him, he did not hesitate to help her after her fall.
"She's hurt now," Kyle Kent said. "I'm not calling the cops."
Elo reminded Kyle Kent that he had told police he was John Smith when they first called him.
"I didn't think he was a state cop," he said.
She also challenged him on why he did not mention the gun to the state police when they called him on Sept. 19.
"At no point did you tell them, 'This was all a misunderstanding. This was self-defense?'" Elo asked him.
"That's right," Kyle Kent answered.
In his closing argument, Stephen P. Ellwood, Pottsville, Kyle Kent's lawyer, told jurors that Kyle Kent should be believed.
"From his testimony, it is clear that there were no illegal acts," he said.
Even if jurors do not believe Kyle Kent, however, they still should acquit him because Melissa Kent's story does not fit with the physical evidence, according to Ellwood.
"The police did a very thorough and professional investigation," he said. "What they found was nothing, nothing that backs up Missy's story."
Neither the SUV nor the road shows evidence of a beating, Ellwood said.
"Her story does not fit the facts," he said.
Furthermore, the photographs and medical reports from the hospital show that she did not receive the extensive injuries that her account would suggest, Ellwood said.