Gina Kirschenheiter gave an emotional victim impact statement during her ex-husband Matt Kirschenheiter’s case where he pleaded guilty to domestic battery, according to Us Weekly.
Matt and Gina appeared in front of a judge in Orange County Superior Court on Tuesday, April 20. During the hearing, Matt plead guilty to one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury of a spouse, and guilty to one felony count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud, or deceit.
Before the Real Housewives of Orange County star began to read her statement, Gina was already sobbing. “It’s hard,” she noted to the judge.
“I thought I was going to die. I still get chills thinking about how I begged you to, ‘Stop. Think about the kids.’ And you responded by saying, ‘Your mom is going to die tonight.’ It echoes in my brain, and it sinks deep in my heart,” she said. “That night, it literally felt like I was in a house with a stranger whom I’d never met before. Your eyes were completely black, and you were not Matt. It was so hard for me to believe that it was even you, but it was.”
Gina continued with her statement through her tears: “It’s taken me a lot of time, self-care, and therapy to work through what happened that night, but I have managed to forgive you for most of it. I accept that I will always have this painful memory from that night. I’ve come to terms with that.”
The judge sentenced Matt to 180 days in county jail. However, he does not have to go to jail if he completes a number of conditions for 178 days, including wearing a bracelet monitor, finishing a 52-week batterers program and three years of formal probation. As part of the plea terms, he also agreed to a “peaceful contact protective order,” which says he cannot harass or threaten Gina.
If you recall, Gina accused her now-ex of domestic violence in June 2019, alleging that he attacked her.
“I was really scared. I ran out of the house, and I rang my neighbor’s doorbell, and I was banging on the door. And he dragged me back in the house,” she alleged on the RHOC season 14 reunion in December 2019 after their temporary reconciliation aired on the show, according to Us Weekly. “A lot of the neighbors heard. They all called the police and then the cops came, they arrested him It was scary. It was really scary.”
Several months after the alleged incident, Matt was charged with two felony counts of domestic violence in September 2019 and pleaded not guilty at the time.
Photo Credit: Bravo Media/NBCUniversal; Orange County District Attorney's Office
