By Matt Ward

Timothy Lee Hobbs is going to be a free man.
A panel of the Nevada Supreme Court reversed the 44-year-old’s stiff prison sentence on Thursday.
Hobbs, a six-time felon, has been locked away at High Desert State Prison for the past two years. 
The late Judge John Davis sentenced Hobbs to a maximum of 25 years in prison for essentially spitting on his girlfriend during a 2008 domestic dispute in front of a Pahrump hair salon. The spitting, though a misdemeanor, was made a felony charge because Hobbs reportedly had two prior domestic battery convictions. Davis also sentenced him as a habitual offender because of the prior batteries.
On Thursday, the northern panel of the Nevada Supreme Court partially reversed Davis’ decision. The justices said prosecutors failed to offer the right kind of proof that Hobbs indeed had two prior domestic batteries at the time of his sentencing in Davis’ court.
State law requires that a domestic battery conviction within seven years of another domestic battery conviction must be proved at the time of sentencing before a judge can consider the defendant a habitual criminal.
The justices who decided the case heard arguments from two local attorneys — Hobbs’ defense attorney Harry Kuehn and prosecutor Wes White, a Nye County deputy district attorney — in December during a special hearing at Pahrump Valley High School.
Two issues were before the judges in December. One was whether spitting on his girlfriend constituted battery and the other was whether prosecutors actually proved the prior convictions.
The panel, consisting of  justices Michael Cherry, Nancy Saitta and Mark Gibbons, agreed with prosecutors that the spitting did constitute battery under state law.
According to an opinion written by Justice Saitta and released by the court on Thursday, “the language and meaning of NRS 200.481 is clear; at a minimum, battery is the intentional and unwanted exertion of force upon another, however slight. Because the record clearly demonstrates that Hobbs intentionally spat on (his former girlfriend) and because spitting on another amounts to the use of force or violence as contemplated by NRS 200.481, we conclude that Hobbs was properly convicted.”
However, on the second issue, the justices make clear in their opinion that “the State failed to prove the existence and constitutional validity of Hobbs’ prior domestic battery misdemeanor convictions and therefore that the enhancement of the domestic battery to a felony and the subsequent adjudication of Hobbs as a habitual criminal were erroneous.”
The justices remanded Hobbs’ case back to District Court, where Kuehn said a judge will have no choice but to release Hobbs.
“He should have only gotten six months and he’s served two years,” the public defender said.
It was unclear how quickly Hobbs would be freed.
White was not available for comment as of press time.