Investigators are still building their criminal case in the death of Bobbi Kristina. But the man already found legally responsible for her death keeps getting into trouble with the law.
Nick Gordon has been arrested for domestic battery in Florida. Again.
This is his second arrest in under a year.
29-year-old Nick Gordon was arrested by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.
He was charged with domestic battery.
People reports that police arrived at Nick Gordon’s home to respond to a domestic disturbance.
Gordon apparently told them that he wanted girlfriend Laura Leal removed from his home and alleged that she had thrown a bottle at him and torn his shirt without provocation.
That explanation didn’t sit right with police.
Officers noticed that Leal had a swollen lip and signs and traces of blood on her face.
Leal told police that she picked up Gordon from a bar, and that he struck her face while she was driving.
He allegedly also grabbed her hair and “stated to her that he should make her wreck the vehicle,” according to the arrest report.
That is horrifying. To make matters worse, Leal declined to press charges, though police arrested him based upon her statements.
He was released on $ 500 bond and is due in court on April 6th.
If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because Nick Gordon was arrested last June … also for domestic assault and kidnapping of the exact same woman.
This was his mugshot in 2017.
At the time, he was arrested for domestic assault and kidnapping of his girlfriend, Laura Leal.
Laura Leal described how he beat and abused her, and said that she’d finally let herself look up how Bobbi Kristina died and realized that she could have met her end the same way.
The charges stem from Leal’s accusations that Gordon pinned her to the bed and began striking her in the face.
She said that she was on the verge of losing consciousness when, desperate to save her own life, she managed to grab hold of a candlestick and strick Nick with it.
Leal said that this bought her the moment she needed to escape. She fled to Nick’s mother’s room to beg for sanctuary from her son’s alleged violence.
Leal then went to the police, who arrested Nick Gordon.
So, after that absolute nightmare of a situation, why were charges dropped?
Well, last August, Laura Leal became “uncooperative” with investigators.
Unfortunately, the justice system requires a cooperative witness to press charges in order to have even a hope of getting a successful conviction for charges like domestic violence.
(At the time when the US Constitution was drawn up and laws were put into place, domestic violence was not considered a crime and women were essentially property, so … this was not a priority to the Founding Fathers)
It seems that Laura Leal’s near-death experience and learning what she did about Bobbi Kristina’s death weren’t enough.
Abusers are known to target women they perceive to be vulnerable to manipulation. Sometimes, knowledge and experience aren’t enough to keep a woman from being drawn back in by a monster.
It’s important to note that Nick Gordon could still pay for Bobbi Kristina’s death — and we don’t just mean the tremendous amount of money he was ordered to pay in the civil trial.
Last year, Gordon’s arrest fueled speculation into Bobbi Kristina’s death. Investigators who are still building their case acknowledged that they were looking at that as relevant.
It seems likely that yet another domestic violence arrest will prove relevant for investigators.
Will a trial for Bobbi Kristina’s death come in time to save Laura Leal’s life, though?
Many fear that it will not.