(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Stillwater man – who remains jailed on $200,000 bail on a charge of trying to kill his girlfriend on Labor Day — had pleaded guilty to abusing the same woman a year and a half ago, court records show.
Robert Dean Chipman, 36, who is 6’3” according to a protective order application by the same woman last year, has been ordered to appear on the Oct. 1 preliminary hearing docket, court records show.
If convicted of assault and battery with intent to kill his girlfriend on Labor Day, Chipman could be given as much as a life prison term, according to the felony charge filed by prosecutor Debra Vincent last week.
Last year, Chipman admitted to abusing the same woman and possessing marijuana on March 15, 2017, court records show. For those misdemeanors, Chipman was placed on one year’s probation under a deferred sentence with an order to have evaluations for domestic and substance abuse, as well as follow any recommendations, court records show.
Eight months later, the prosecution alleged Chipman had violated the rules of probation, for which he was arrested in April and released on a personal recognizance bond. The next month when he failed to appear in court, a bench warrant was issued for his arrest that was still outstanding when he was taken into custody for allegedly attempting to kill the same woman on Labor Day, court records show.
In last year’s case, Chipman was arrested at 9:15 a.m. on March 15, 2017, about 15 minutes after Stillwater Police Officer John Stanbery was sent to Chipman’s residence regarding a domestic assault on his girlfriend in progress, court records show.
The woman had a scratch on her left palm that she said was caused by Chipman’s fingernail and a small bruise on her right bicep that she said was caused by Chipman holding her down, the police affidavit said.
“According to the victim, this incident was caused over the possession of a cellular phone,” the affidavit said. After Chipman was arrested in that case, the officer found a baggy containing marijuana in his jacket’s front right pocket, the affidavit said.
On that same day, the victim obtained an emergency protective order against Chipman that was dismissed a year later when no one appeared in court.
In her protective order petition, Chipman’s girlfriend wrote, “I had gotten us each a phone from Rent A Center. Robert had stayed up all night on the phone talking online to very undesirable people. I told him I wanted to take the phone back to Rent A Center…At this time, Robert got irate and began to verbally abuse me.
“The next thing I know, Robert was taking my phone from past phone lines away from me while I was trying to call 911. He then put me in a leg lock that pulled on both my legs and my back. I called 911 and was taken to the emergency room.
“There have been many times when he has trapped me in a bedroom and told (me) I was worthless and did not matter to anyone or anything.”
In the alleged Labor Day attack on the same woman, Chipman admitted to Stillwater Police Officers T.J. Low and Ricardo Inciarte that “he had drunk alcohol and smoked marijuana in the past 24 hours,” Stillwater Police Detective John Paul Johnson alleged in an affidavit.
“Chipman had been located in Arrington Park, near 3rd and Arrington, after he called 911 himself. Chipman admitted to officers that he had assaulted, strangled, and beat (his girlfriend) with a board in an attempt to, and with intent to, kill her,” the affidavit alleged.
“He told officers that he choked (her) neck hard enough to try and make her head ‘pop off’ and when that did not kill her, he took a nearby board and slammed it into her neck – trying to sever her neck,” the affidavit alleged.
When the detective interviewed Chipman the day after his arrest, he said “he felt like (his girlfriend) was trying to stop him from starting a movement about ‘peace and love’ and she was always keeping him down, so when (she) threw hot coffee on him, it released seven years worth of bottled-up rage.
“He said he launched himself at her and grabbed her by the throat, taking her to the ground. When his attempt to strangle the life out of her did not work, he grabbed the nearby board and slammed it into her neck.
“He said he compared it to trying to ‘cut the head off of the snake.’ He told me that he knew what he was doing was illegal, but felt morally justified, and competent to make the decision that he needed to end her life. He felt it was a ‘mercy killing,’” the affidavit alleged.
Police found Chipman’s girlfriend in a back hallway at his residence where she was covered in blood, with a bloody board nearby, the affidavit said.
When the detective saw Chipman’s girlfriend at the Stillwater Medical Center emergency room, “She was gurgling as she struggled to breathe, even with medical assistance, and bloody fluid had to be suctioned from her lungs periodically. She was unable to speak at that time,” the affidavit said.
Chipman, who was in police custody at the emergency room, had scratch marks on his knees, shins, abdomen, knuckles and face, along with a black eye and a blistering burn to his left thigh that he said was a result of his girlfriend throwing hot coffee on him, the affidavit alleged.
Chipman’s girlfriend was transferred in critical condition to the OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City, a Stillwater police news release said.
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