Sometimes it is hard to know the right penalty...

The judge was confused. The date was correct for the trial...he agreed, the defense attorney agreed, and the prosecuting attorney agreed. In fact, it seemed the only person who did not agree was the defendant, Joey Van den Broeck. He was nowhere to be seen.

So they went ahead and held the trial without him. There seems to be no dispute regarding the facts. Joey, far from being a classy guy, was a jerk who inflicted bodily harm on his girlfriend who, one would hope, was smart enough to be "ex-girlfriend". Why anyone would stay around someone who thought violence was a reasonable solution to disagreements is beyond me but to each their own.

It was not a huge surprise when they found Joey guilty. The judge sentenced him to a fine and 8 months in jail. I guess that is a reasonable enough penalty, particularly in light of the added charge of resisting arrest. But it brings up an interesting point: since Joey died before the trial, do the other prisoners have to spend the next 8 months with a corpse?