Police say Robert Robbins entered his ex-girlfriend’s Columbus home with a key he had claimed was lost before attacking her.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A 40-year-old man is accused of using a key he had previously said was lost to enter his ex-girlfriend’s home after she refused to let him inside, then attacking her with a machete in an early-morning confrontation that left her with injuries to her head and hands, according to court-record accounts.

Robert Robbins was arrested after the Sept. 6 incident and charged with one count of felonious assault with a deadly weapon. Police were sent shortly before 8 a.m. to a home in the 600 block of South 22nd Street for a reported domestic violence incident. Officers found a woman with a visible wound to her head, and she identified Robbins as her former boyfriend and said he had attacked her with a machete. She was taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, where her injuries were described in published accounts as not life-threatening.

The case, as described in reports citing Franklin County Municipal Court records, began hours earlier. The woman told investigators that Robbins came to her residence the previous evening after having been gone for several days. The two argued outside the home, according to her account. She then went inside and did not allow him to enter. Robbins allegedly remained outside for hours, repeatedly knocking and asking to be let in. The available records do not identify what prompted the original argument or explain why Robbins had been away.

By morning, the woman believed Robbins had finally left, according to the account she gave investigators. That belief is central to the sequence alleged by police. While she was sitting on a couch inside the residence, Robbins allegedly entered using a key. Investigators said the woman told them Robbins had previously represented that the key was lost. Authorities have not publicly detailed when he obtained it, how long he had retained it or whether he had permission to keep a key after the relationship ended.

Police allege that Robbins was angry because the woman had not admitted him earlier. According to the court-record account, he approached her while carrying a machete behind his back. He then allegedly got on top of her and began cutting her hair with the blade while she struggled to get free. During that confrontation, the woman suffered a cut to the top of her head and multiple cuts to a hand or hands, reports citing the court filings said. Authorities have released no indication that her injuries were considered life-threatening.

The allegations make the key more than a minor detail in the police narrative. The woman had gone inside and declined repeated requests to open the door, according to investigators, but police say Robbins later entered without her opening it. The publicly available reporting does not establish whether prosecutors are alleging a separate unlawful-entry offense, and the reports reviewed for this story identify only one filed charge: felonious assault with a deadly weapon. No additional charge should be inferred from the manner in which police say Robbins entered the home.

Ohio law defines felonious assault in part as knowingly causing or attempting to cause physical harm to another person by means of a deadly weapon or dangerous ordnance. The offense is generally a second-degree felony under that provision. The charge against Robbins is an accusation, and prosecutors would have to prove the elements of the charged offense in court. The available reports do not indicate that he has been convicted, pleaded guilty or admitted the allegations.

Robbins later appeared for an arraignment, where a judge set bond at $50,000, according to reporting on the court proceedings. The judge also imposed conditions that would apply if Robbins were released. Those conditions included no contact with the woman, no possession of a firearm and no use of drugs or alcohol. Bond conditions regulate a defendant’s conduct while a criminal case is pending; they do not amount to a finding that the allegations have been proved.

The case began in Franklin County Municipal Court, which handles initial proceedings in felony cases as well as misdemeanor matters. Under Ohio’s court structure, municipal courts may conduct preliminary hearings in felony cases. If a felony matter proceeds, it can later move to the appropriate common pleas court through the required criminal process. The reports reviewed for this story did not establish a later indictment, plea, trial date or final disposition for Robbins, and no such development is being assumed.

The police response was described as involving a reported domestic violence incident, a term that reflects the relationship alleged between Robbins and the woman. Ohio law recognizes certain acts against a current or former dating partner within its statutory domestic violence framework. That broader legal definition, however, does not mean a separate domestic violence charge was filed in this case. Published accounts of the Sept. 6 incident consistently identified the criminal count against Robbins as felonious assault with a deadly weapon.

Several details remain outside the public account. Authorities have not released the woman’s name, and there is no need to identify her to explain the criminal allegation. The reviewed reports also do not say how long she and Robbins had been together, when their relationship ended, whether he had previously lived at the South 22nd Street residence or whether police recovered the machete described in the complaint. No publicly documented motive beyond the alleged anger over being denied entry has been established.

The sequence described by investigators stretches from an argument outside the house to repeated attempts to be admitted, a period in which the woman believed Robbins had gone, and then an alleged entry with a key she understood to be lost. Police say the confrontation inside ended with injuries serious enough to require hospital treatment. Those facts form the basis of the criminal allegation reported from the court records, but they remain allegations subject to testing through the judicial process.

What remains publicly established is limited to the arrest, the felonious-assault charge, the woman’s treatment and the bond terms imposed at arraignment. The reviewed records do not show a final disposition, so any later plea, dismissal, indictment or trial outcome would need separate confirmation before changing Robbins’ status from accused to adjudicated.

Author note: Last updated Oct. 21, 2026.