Domestic abuser out on $0 bail sent to prison
A Porterville man convicted on domestic violence charges and recently released on $0 bail has been sentenced to state prison.
Paul Bella, 50, was recently sentenced at the South County Justice Center to four years and eight months in state prison for a series of crimes, including domestic violence.
On May 25, Porterville Police responded to a local pharmacy where they found a victim screaming and crying with a pair of pliers embedded in her ankle. The victim told police she and Bella, her husband, had an argument at their residence minutes before when Bella, who was working on a bicycle, threw the pliers at her. The pliers bounced off the ground and lodged in the victim’s ankle.
Bella was located soon after and arrested. Medical personnel with the Kaweah Delta Medical Center were later able to remove the pliers.
At the time of the crime, Bella was out on $0 bail for a previous case of possession of a controlled substance and resisting arrest that occurred in late April 2020. He was also out of custody awaiting sentencing on a previous case of carrying a stabbing weapon, among other charges, that occurred in early April 2019.
In early August, Bella pleaded to multiple charges in two separate cases: felony corporal injury to a spouse, felony assault with a deadly weapon, misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, misdemeanor possession of
drug paraphernalia, and misdemeanor resisting arrest. The assault and domestic violence charges are enhanced with a special allegation the crimes were committed while the defendant was out of custody on another felony case.
The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Avi Feinstein of the Porterville Prosecution Division and was investigated by the Porterville Police Department.