Robert Robbins faces a deadly-weapon assault allegation after police say his former girlfriend suffered cuts during an early-morning confrontation.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Robert Robbins, 40, faces a felonious-assault charge and a $50,000 bond after Columbus police alleged that he attacked his former girlfriend with a machete inside her home, a case that remains at the accusation stage with no publicly verified conviction or final disposition.
The single reported charge places the case under Ohio’s felonious-assault statute, which prohibits knowingly causing or attempting to cause physical harm to another person by means of a deadly weapon or dangerous ordnance. The offense is generally classified as a second-degree felony. Prosecutors still must prove the charged conduct through the criminal process, and the filing of the case does not establish Robbins’ guilt. The factual basis reported publicly comes largely from the woman’s account to investigators after police responded to the residence Sept. 6.
According to court-record accounts, Columbus officers were sent shortly before 8 a.m. that Sunday to a home in the 600 block of South 22nd Street after a report of domestic violence. They found a woman with a visible cut to her head. She told police Robbins, whom she identified as her ex-boyfriend, had injured her with a machete. Medical personnel transported her to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, where she was treated for injuries that published reports described as not life-threatening.
The woman’s later hospital interview supplied the chronology behind the felony accusation. She told investigators that Robbins had come to the residence the previous evening after being gone for several days. The pair argued outside before she returned to the house. She did not let Robbins in, according to her account. Rather than leaving immediately, he allegedly remained outside for hours, knocking on the door multiple times and asking to enter. The reports do not identify the subject of their dispute.
Police say the situation changed after the woman came to believe Robbins was gone. She was sitting inside the home when he allegedly entered with a key he had earlier claimed to have lost. That allegation explains how investigators say the confrontation moved from outside the locked residence to the interior without the woman opening the door for him. The publicly reviewed reports do not identify any burglary or trespass count against Robbins, so his alleged use of the key should not be treated as a separately charged crime in the absence of a court filing establishing one.
Once inside, police say Robbins was upset because the woman had refused his requests to enter. The reported court account says he approached her with a machete concealed behind his back and then got on top of her. Investigators allege he used the blade to cut her hair while she struggled and that she suffered injuries to the top of her head and to her hand or hands during the encounter. The court-record summaries do not provide a complete medical report or say whether the hair cutting itself produced a separate injury.
The charge focuses legally on the alleged use of a deadly weapon to cause or attempt to cause physical harm. That is narrower than the full narrative contained in the police account. Facts such as the hours spent outside, the allegedly retained key and the claim that Robbins was angry about being denied entry help explain the circumstances police say surrounded the encounter, but they are not substitutes for the elements prosecutors must establish on the felonious-assault count. Likewise, a court can consider allegations at different stages without determining guilt before trial or a plea.
Robbins appeared at an arraignment after his arrest, and a judge set bond at $50,000. According to reports of the proceeding, the court imposed several release conditions: Robbins was not to contact the woman, possess a firearm or consume drugs or alcohol if released. Those restrictions address conduct while the case is pending. They do not constitute a sentence. The available material does not establish whether Robbins posted the bond, remained in custody afterward or sought to have the bond terms changed.
Franklin County Municipal Court is a normal starting point for a felony case arising in Columbus. Ohio’s judicial system gives municipal and county courts authority to conduct preliminary hearings in felony matters. State criminal rules also provide for the transfer of the necessary court record when a felony case is bound over to the court in which the defendant is to appear. That procedural framework matters because an initial municipal-court case should not be confused with a final felony prosecution or disposition.
No later grand-jury action, common pleas case, negotiated plea or trial result was established in the publicly accessible reports reviewed for this article. That absence limits what can accurately be said about the case’s current procedural posture. A later indictment could contain the same charge, modified charges or additional allegations, but none should be predicted or reported without a corresponding court record. The same caution applies to possible penalties: potential statutory punishment is not the same thing as a sentence imposed on this defendant.
The initial police call was categorized as a reported domestic violence incident because the woman identified Robbins as her ex-boyfriend. Ohio statutes include protections involving certain current and former dating relationships, but the criminal charge reported in this case is felonious assault with a deadly weapon. The available reporting does not establish that Robbins was separately charged under Ohio’s domestic violence criminal statute. Relationship terminology used in a police response and a specific criminal count filed in court are related but distinct legal concepts.
Other evidentiary questions remain unanswered in the public account. Reports do not say whether investigators recovered or photographed the machete, whether fingerprints or other forensic evidence were collected, whether a neighbor witnessed the hours outside the home or whether anyone heard the confrontation. They also do not report a statement from Robbins giving his version of events. Those omissions do not disprove the allegation, but they are reasons to distinguish the woman’s reported statement and the police accusation from findings that have been established at trial.
The known case therefore centers on a relatively defined set of allegations. Police say Robbins returned after several days away, argued with his former girlfriend, remained outside after she went indoors, later entered with a key she believed he had lost and attacked her with a machete. Officers found her injured afterward, and prosecutors brought a felony assault count. The court then imposed bond and release restrictions while the accusation remained pending.
No verified court record reviewed for this article establishes that prosecutors have secured a conviction or that the charge has been dismissed. Robbins therefore remains a defendant accused of felonious assault, with the account described by police still awaiting whatever testing, challenge or resolution may occur in subsequent proceedings.
Author note: Last updated Oct. 21, 2026.