Manchester Boxer Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Baseball Bat Assault

Matthew Remillard, a promising featherweight boxer and former champion from Manchester, was sentenced to five years in prison in a Hartford courtroom Tuesday, according to the Hartford Courant.

The Courant reported that the fight was over a woman, Danielle Napolitano, whom Remillard and the victim, Jordan Evans, were both dating at the time. The Courant reported that Evans and Remillard got into a fight at Napolitano’s Marlborough home on the night of Jan. 5, 2010, and that Napolitano then lured Evans back to her house via text messages, where Remillard and her brother and cousin were waiting to assault him.

Evans said that Remillard, 25, swung the baseball bat at him from behind when he walked into Danielle Napolitano’s darkened home, according to the Courant. Remillard claimed that he punched Evans.

Remillard pleaded no contest to a charge of first-degree assault stemming from the incident back in September.

Remillard was an undefeated boxer in the Featherweight division until he lost a March 26 fight to Miguel Angel Garica by TKO in Atlantic City and held the featherweight titles of the North American Boxing Federation and the North American Boxing Organization. His professional record is 23-1. 

According to the Courant, Judge Elpedio N. Vitale noted during the sentencing that Remillard’s career as a boxer was likely finished.