By Alana Bleimann
SACRAMENTO – Defendant Eric Bouie’s lawyer had a sad story to tell the judge here in Sacramento County Superior Court Monday, and asked the court to lower the $1 million bail.
It didn’t happen, and Bouie—despite exchanging “I love you” with his alleged victim in court—was not released.
Assistant Public Defender Dan Karalash asked the court to lower defendant Bouie’s bail from $1 million to $50,000 plus an ankle monitor, citing a defendant who suffered from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), but who threatened to kill his ex-wife.
In August of 2018, Bouie was working as a truck driver. While sitting in the passenger seat at the time, the driver fell asleep and the vehicle went over a bridge and “landed upside down on the road beneath.” Bouie suffered many injuries such as losing consciousness, breaking a femur, damaging his spine, and suffering some brain damage. The alleged side effect of these injuries was PTSD.
At the time he was married to the alleged victim, and after he suffered these injuries, the marriage began to suffer. At the home, there was a “refracturing of the femur due to a tripping of the 
walker.” PD Karalash questioned whether or not this re-injury was accidental.
Presently, the defendant needs two or three more surgeries and can only receive them if his bail is lowered, added Karalash, noting “his [Bouie’s] leg is an inch or two shorter than original causing hip problems.”
Bouie’s doctor is “afraid Bouie will not get better” if he is not released soon to his mother and daughter who are “prepared to accept him into the home,” the attorney said.
As to the case at hand, in June of this year, the defendant “left four bullets in front of her [the victim’s] house and one year prior he left the gas on [in the house] and lit a candle and made some threats,” it’s alleged.
The victim also believes he has been following her—she said that “he drove by her house saying to not stand too close to the street or she will get shot.” She also said she continues to be harassed, and has “received a phone call from him where he told her he will blow up her house and he hopes she will be inside.”
The victim “knows he owns firearms” and is taking these threats seriously, according to Deputy District Attorney Jenna Saavedra.
“She is terrified that he is going to be released…extremely fearful,” Saavedra commented. In fact, the victim quickly voiced into the hearing to state that “he’s gonna kill me if he gets out” while in tears.
Bouie was also in tears in the courtroom saying, “I love you so much” and crying out to her.
Prosecutor Saavedra listed more than five prior felonies and misdemeanors made by the defendant, but his first strike was in 1994 in which he was accused of assault with a firearm.
Additionally, in March of this year police officers searched his car and “located 27 grams of meth and a semi-automatic handgun and 1 gram of meth in his jacket pocket.”
With all this in mind, the judge denied the request to reduce bail as she “found that there are no conditions that would guarantee the safety of the community.”
Further proceedings are set for January of next year.
Alana Bleimann is a junior at the University of San Francisco majoring in Sociology with a minor in Criminal Justice Studies. She is from Raleigh, North Carolina.
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