Attorney paints MMA fighter as the victim in court, says the truth will come out

Aug 21, 2014 10:15 GMT  ·  By
War Machine’s most recent mugshot: he has a history of arrests for assault
   War Machine’s most recent mugshot: he has a history of arrests for assault

MMA Fighter War Machine, previously known under his birth name Jon Kappenhaver, was arrested last weekend after being more than a week on the run in connection to the brutal beating he put on his estranged girlfriend, adult star Christy Mack, at her home. His attorney says he’s a victim too.

On August 8, War Machine stopped by Mack’s house in Las Vegas, even though, according to her statement, they had broken up and he had long moved out. He found her with another man and, enraged, he proceeded to beating them both, focusing with more violence on “his” woman.

Mack is still in hospital at the time of reporting, having suffered 18 broken bones in the face, a broken rib and ruptured liver, in addition to having had several teeth cracked or taken out completely, her nose broken in 2 places, and several bruises and swelling all over the body.

She escaped when he went to look for a knife to do even more damage to her, and called for help. The fighter went off the grid and hid from police for days, until he was captured at a hotel in Simi Valley – weirdly enough, when another hotel guest called the cops because he was beating up another woman.

While on the run, War Machine still found the time to tweet to claim that he was innocent and that the “truth will come out” eventually about what happened, about how he was fighting for his life. His brother also told the press that he had acted in self-defense because Mack was the one to attack him first, with a knife no less, and that he had no other choice but to beat her to a bloody pulp.

It seems that this will be his defense in court too. During the first hearing, in which his attorney also told the judge that they would not be opposing the proposal to have him moved to Las Vegas for the trial, he (the attorney) argued that the fighter was being demonized by the media.

This will eventually work against him in the trial, he hinted, KTLA reports.

“The hardest thing for my client is seeing the responses from the media, the public. There’s been a lot of statements on one side,” attorney Brandon Sua said. “The media has done a good job of painting my client as a monster, but my client is not a monster. He is a good guy.”

Sua added that War Machine would be making a statement “when the time is right,” but until then, we should all know that he did not do “anything illegal,” which probably means he was right to flee from police too.

War Machine will stand trial in Las Vegas but a first hearing date has not been made public to the press. If he’s found guilty (he’s been charged with battery by strangulation, battery with substantial bodily harm, open or gross lewdness, two counts of battery resulting in substantial bodily harm constituting in domestic violence, coercion with the threat of force and assault with a deadly weapon), he stands to go away behind bars between 7 and 32 years.