Long Beach man receives possibly longest sentence for domestic violence in city history

A Long Beach man received what City Prosecutor Doug Haubert is calling likely the longest misdemeanor domestic violence sentence in city history Tuesday.

Gary Steven McJimsey, 36, was sentenced to eight years in county jail after a jury convicted him of battering two women, threatening them multiple times by phone and text message, and vandalizing their property, Haubert’s office said in a statement Tuesday. The jury took less than one hour to retu guilty verdicts on nine misdemeanor counts. The court consolidated the victims’ cases for the trial.

“The sentence was long, but appropriate, because of the harm repeatedly inflicted by McJimsey and the extreme and fear he caused his victims,” Haubert said in a statement. “The judge had little choice but to give him the maximum in order to prevent future violence.”

A patte of violence

The jury found true that McJimsey broke into an apartment where his ex girlfriend and mother of his child, Jamie, was sleeping Feb. 8, 2015. He followed her outside, threw her to the ground, straddled her and punched her. Jamie tried to call police, according to court documents.

After punching her, McJimsey used a hammer to smash her car windows and later sent her threatening text messages that threatened her life, prosecutors said.

“One day ur goa look back if your still here and wish this day never happen (sic),” he wrote in one of the messages.

A second victim

On Nov. 5, 2015, McJimsey saw his girlfriend, Denise, in a photo standing with another man, prosecutors said. He “became enraged with jealousy” and sent her text messages including one that said he would “bash [her] head into a pulp.”

Denise and McJimsey have a child together, prosecutors said.

The next day, he texted her a video of him cutting her clothes with scissors inside her bedroom, prosecutors said. In the next two weeks, he made threatening calls and sent texts to her.

Denise got a temporary restraining order, but after McJimsey was served, he broke into her home by sawing off the metal security door, prosecutors said.

During trial, the jury also heard evidence that he assaulted Denise in 2012 while she was pregnant with their child, prosecutors said.

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“The defendant’s patte of abuse and violence was very serious and would have continued,” said Pooja Kumar, Deputy City Prosecutor who handled the trial and sentencing, in a statement. “Both victims lived in fear for their safety and there’s no telling what he would have done to them next.”