MACON, Ga. — Five months before she was killed in her Macon home, Cynthia Berry told a judge that her boyfriend choked her, grabbed her arm, and threatened to break it.
Judge Connie Williford issued a 12-month protective order for Berry against her boyfriend. Berry was found dead inside her north Macon home early Monday.
So far, the Bibb County Sheriff's Office has not released any details on how she died or possible suspects, but they're calling her death a homicide.
The petition that Berry filed last year in Bibb County Superior Court claimed that her ex-boyfriend assaulted her at least three times in their eight-year relationship.
The worst happened last Aug. 24, when she moved out of their Candlewick Court home, Berry wrote.
She claimed that the man tried to take her cell phone, pushed her to the ground, stood above her and grabbed her by her shoulders. The man put her in a chokehold, pulled her up from the ground and took her phone.
Then, he followed her into the kitchen, Berry wrote, pushed her arm into her back and said, "If you make a sound, I will break it."
Berry wrote that she had trouble breathing, her elbows and knees were bleeding, and a month later, "she is still having back and shoulder pain."
Williford ordered the man to stay away from Berry, her home and her child.
That wasn't the first time the man assaulted her, Berry wrote.
In 2017, she said he "punched her in her chest, causing her to lose her breath." The next year, Berry wrote, he stomped on her foot and broke her toe.
The man has two pistols, two rifles, a 12-gauge shotgun and ammunition, she wrote.
Court records don't show whether Berry's ex-boyfriend attended the court hearing or opposed her petition, but Williford ruled there was probable cause to believe the abuse happened.
Family members said Berry moved early this year from the Candlewick Court house to a home on Winchester Place in Bibb's Barrington Hall subdivision to escape their abusive relationship.
The Bibb County Sheriff's Office declined to comment on the case again Tuesday, saying it's still under investigation. Coroner Leon Jones also had no comment.
Anybody with information on the case can call Macon Regional Crimestoppers at 1-877-68-CRIME.
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