Gospel Singer JAMES FORTUNE . . . Is Found GUILTY . . . Of Beating His Wife LIKE A SLAVE!!!

Last year, popular Grammy-nominated gospel recording artist James Fortune was arrested and charged with beating his wife. At the time James denied he did anything wrong. And members of the gospel community RALLIED AROUND HIM. But it now turs out that he IS AN ABUSER. Yesterday, James plead guilty to assaulting his wife.

James accepted a plea deal Tuesday to a third degree felony charge of assault - family violence. He was sentenced by Fort Bend District Judge Maggie Jaramillo to five years of probation plus five days in jail. He must also serve 175 hours of community service, complete a "batterer's intervention" program and stay away from his wife.

Police claim that James beat his wife with a wooden vanity stool, then he kicked her and threw her against a wall. The brutal incident happened inside the couple's Texas home in October 2014.

In court, a prosecutor read a victim impact statement form Fortune's wife in which she wrote, "I hope in all of this you get help. Serious help. Although this probation might be like a slap on the wrist, I hope you look at it as a moment to better yourself and change something within you for your future."