Austin Payne says he “suffered emotional abuse” from girlfriend; wanted her to feel it, too

26-year-old Austin Payne told the police, after his girlfriend called them, that they recently broke up and wanted to delete things off each other’s phones. Police arrived at their residence on August 30th to speak with Austin’s girlfriend, Hailey Bondia, who said Austin assaulted her. She said that after she told him she wanted to break up, they argued, and she deleted intimate photos of herself from his phone. Austin reportedly got onto her back while lying down, saying he would kill her, and hit her in the back several times, leaving two red marks. She agreed to let him delete pictures of himself from her phone, but instead, he was deleting texts between them because he knew that she would call the police. Once he realized the messages were still on her iPad, she said he chased her around the residence to grab her iPad and delete the messages.

She says he grabbed her by her shirt, dragged her outside, and threw her down the stairs, which caused redness to her knees and elbow. Austin told police that she trashed their apartment and wanted her to leave, so he physically carried her outside. Police placed him into custody, and he said that he had a video of the incident. While the police reviewed the video, Austin excitedly said, “We (the police) saw her back; It was not great. I am not trying to play it down, but it was a five-second hard slap.” They asked him about the slap, and he said that she emotionally abused him and wanted her to feel what he felt. Also, he admitted to hitting her back and causing the injuries. The video showed Hailey pulling Austin’s hair to get her iPad back. Hailey told police she wanted to prosecute, and Austin was arrested for domestic assault.