MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – A Rutherford County man who was sentenced to more than 50 years in prison following a brutal domestic assault that culminated in a horrifying sequence of violence, including the forced confinement of his girlfriend in a dog cage and strangulation that caused her to lose consciousness.

The incident occurred on January 20, 2020, after the Defendant and his live-in girlfriend, Christy Ann Foe, returned home from a night of drinking. According to court testimony, the Defendant became enraged when he found the victim speaking to her mother on the phone, accusing her of talking to another man. What followed was a violent attack that lasted roughly 40 minutes and left the victim with extensive injuries, including a permanent head scar, a concussion, and impaired vision in her right eye.

During the assault, the Defendant—who weighs 300 pounds—beat and strangled the 140-pound victim, slammed her head into a door frame, and eventually forced her into a dog cage, where he locked her inside. At one point, the Defendant reportedly attempted to screw shut the back door of the house to prevent her escape. The victim’s mother, who overheard part of the attack, rushed to the home and contacted police. Officers broke down the door and arrested the Defendant, who surrendered at the scene.

Medical professionals later testified that the victim experienced “excruciating pain” and sustained multiple injuries, including facial swelling, bruises, and a deep laceration to the scalp requiring staples. Despite the Defendant’s attempts to downplay the severity of the assault during his trial—claiming many of the injuries were self-inflicted—the jury found him guilty on all counts on November 18, 2021.

Originally in court, Lauper appeared before Rutherford County Circuit Court Judge Barry Tidwell, where he was convicted of especially aggravated kidnapping, multiple counts of aggravated assault (including violating a restraining order), domestic assault, and preventing an emergency call. At the sentencing hearing in May 2022, the trial court imposed a sentence of fifty years, eleven months, and twenty-nine days in confinement. Appeals challenging the sufficiency of evidence related to the kidnapping charge were denied, with the court affirming that the victim’s permanent disfigurement and testimony about extreme pain met the legal threshold for serious bodily injury.

Accordingly, the man will continue to serve his time in prison and his sentence officially ends in year 2071. At that point, Lauper will be 85-years-old.

The denial filed by the Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday, April 16, 2025.