Palo Brea Woman’s Pepper Spray The Key In 'unlawful Imprisonment’ Escape

If ever there was an incident that demonstrates how useful it is to carry pepper spray, this could just be it.

It started at 10 p.m. Monday when Maricopa Police Department officers responded to a call for service at a Palo Cedro Road home in Palo Brea. That’s where the responding officers found a woman who had obviously been beaten, and was actively bleeding, they said.

The woman said her boyfriend, Nathan Andrew Prince, 36, held her captive inside a car, where he punched her in the face and abraded her arm.

(Prince was sued by the Palo Brea Homeowners Association in June. Delia R. Neal, the Pinal County Superior Court judge, ruled against him Dec. when he failed to show up for court. The judge had ordered a foreclosure on the house where he was arrested this week.)

Prince later gave the officers a different story — that the couple was driving home from a local bowling alley when they got into a verbal argument, and she struck him first in the face. He said only then did he hit her back and acknowledged that he made her bleed.

That’s when, Prince said, his girlfriend pepper sprayed him for “no reason.” However, the officers concluded that she pepper sprayed him in self-defense, and that she was being illegally imprisoned, as it was only then that she was able to escape to a family member’s house, they said.

MPD officers stated in their report that Prince’s eyes were red and swollen, consistent with being pepper sprayed, and his right hand was also red, consistent with having punched someone. There were no marks on his face where he said he had been struck three times. Further, the officers did not note any redness on the girlfriend’s hands.

Prince was arrested and booked into the Pinal County jail on charges of aggravated assault and unlawful imprisonment. If convicted on both charges, he faces up to 13 years in prison.

Resources for people experiencing domestic violence in Maricopa include: