Tampa, FL: Dead woman had complained of beatings by Tampa murder suspect

TAMPA — Last spring, 22-year-old Nakysha Hamilton admitted to court officials that she allowed her boyfriend to escape charges of domestic violence at least three times because she didn't want to testify against him. She missed one court appearance, Hamilton said, because she was in the hospital having his baby.
Hamilton's family knew she was in trouble. She told them she was scared of him and they had seen her bruises. But their efforts to help her ended in frustration. Hamilton didn't want to leave him, they said.
Her family ended up cut off from her four children.
"After he'd beat her, she would hide her eyes from us," said her grandmother, Alice Gilbert.
Last May and June, Hamilton applied for injunctions to keep Leon Stevenson Jr., 28, away from her. But the court docket recorded a "no show" by the victim for the first one. The second one was dismissed for reasons that were not clear Thursday.
Hamilton died Wednesday morning from head injuries. Hillsborough County deputies say her boyfriend choked and beat her during an early-morning argument over their bills. After he beat her, he bathed her and put her to bed, investigators say. Hours later, he drove her to his mother's home, 3 miles away, passing by University Community Hospital.
He is now charged with second-degree murder.
Hamilton's aunt, Arnita Hamilton, said the family was "shocked" by her murder, though they had long been aware of the beatings.
Outwardly, she said, Stevenson appeared to be a nonviolent man.
"You would look at him and not see a bad person," the aunt said.
"But what goes on behind closed doors, sometimes there's another person."
In 2008, Stevenson was charged with trying to strangle Hamilton, a third-degree felony. The case was dropped a month later.
In a Tampa police report made on April 21, 2009, officers described finding Hamilton trying to get away from Stevenson. She had locked the door of their apartment and he had broken through a window. According to the report, he'd chased her down and dragged her back to the apartment.
Stevenson was charged with battery. The case was later dismissed. According to court records, the victim refused to testify.
In police and court records since 2008, Hamilton described the beatings she said she got at his hands. "He beat me and kicked me and choked me," she said in a petition for domestic violence last May. "He has stalked me … whenever I tried to leave him."
That was the petition concluded by Hamilton's "no show."
Hamilton's grandmother, Gilbert, said that as a result of their attempted interventions, she and other family members have been cut off from Hamilton's four children for years. Stevenson is the father of three of the children.
She said she hasn't been able to talk to them since her daughter's murder.
The four are staying with Stevenson's family.