Ex-Conn. trooper avoids jail after guilty plea in assault case

VERNON — A former state trooper accused of beating a woman in separate incidents of domestic violence pleaded guilty to felony assault and other charges Wednesday and was given a suspended, five-year sentence.

Jaime Solis, 30, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, third-degree assault and second-degree threatening before Judge Margaret Murphy in state Superior Court in Rockville. He resigned from his job as a state trooper, according to his lawyer, Robert Britt.

Solis was placed on probation for three years and must participate in domestic violence, substance abuse and mental health programs. He may not have a gun or drink alcohol, and a permanent protective order bans him from having contact with the victim.

The woman, who was not in court, did not want Solis to be incarcerated or even prosecuted, said Jaclyn Preville, supervisory assistant state’s attorney.

The assault charges refer to separate incidents last summer in Vernon when Solis hit her in the face so hard that he left a 1½-inch gash above her eyebrow, Preville told the judge. In an earlier attack, he backhanded her across the face and punched her in the stomach, she said.

Solis did not make a statement, but Britt said his client is on military disability because of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a condition he has in part because of an incident that happened when Solis was younger. He didn’t elaborate.

Therapy is helping him, Britt said.

Under the plea agreement, mental health treatment will continue, and Solis will receive substance abuse counseling and participate in the Explore program, an intense 26-week program for domestic violence offenders.

Given the circumstances, the outcome of the case was appropriate, Preville said outside the courtroom.

“I can see how people would want him to go to jail,” she said. But she noted the victim’s wishes, the lifetime protective order and the fact that Solis straight-out admitted to the assaults without pushing for a trial or applying to the family violence program, for which he was technically eligible.

The fact he’ll have a felony assault on his record is “huge,” Preville said.

Solis was arrested twice in the summer of 2022 and charged with more than a half dozen offenses. The remaining charges — including two counts of risk of injury to a child — were dropped in court Wednesday.

Vernon police made the first arrest Aug. 1 after getting a call from a home in the Rockville section of Vernon about an assault that happened in Solis’ nearby house, police said. The victim, who left the home after the incident, had what police said was “a severe laceration” above her eye; she was taken to the hospital, where she received 13 stitches, according to a warrant for his arrest. Officers determined that Solis had struck the victim in the head with his hand while she was holding a 1-year-old child, police said. The baby wasn’t physically injured.

He was charged with seconddegree assault, a class D felony, and risk of injury to a minor, a class C felony. He also was charged with disorderly conduct, a class C misdemeanor. The assault charge alone is punishable by a prison sentence of one to five years and a fine of up to $5,000.

Two days later, on Aug. 3, Vernon police arrested Solis again after hearing allegations that he punched the woman 40 times over the course of about a year. The woman was pregnant during at least one of the attacks, which she said included him slapping her, hitting her with a belt and punching her in the stomach, according to the warrant.

He also threatened to kill their dog, the warrant said.

The woman had evidence of some of his threats in the form of text messages and an audio recording of her being assaulted: During one of the attacks, she left her cellphone on “record” and put it in her back pocket, according to the warrant.