Hayden Panettiere’s ex-BF Brian Hickerson faced legal setback days before her death

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Just three days before Hayden Panettiere died, her ex-boyfriend Brian Hickerson’s request to reduce his past felony domestic violence charges to misdemeanors was rejected by a judge.

Hickerson also wanted to expunge the convictions but it was rejected too by Judge Olivia Rosales on Thursday, August 13, Page Six reported, citing the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Brian Hickerson was sentenced in 2021 for attacking Hayden Panettiere

The new development in his case comes years after Hickerson pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend in April 2021 after being arrested in Los Angeles.

At the time, he was pressed with an eight-count criminal case after several incidents took place between May 2019 and January 2020 involving Panettiere.

Also in the same year, Hickerson received a sentence of 45 days in county jail along with four years of formal probation, 52 mandatory domestic violence classes, and a five-year restraining order.

Brian Hickerson allegedly hit Hayden Panettiere with 'a closed fist'

Panettiere and Hickerson reportedly dated on-and-off from 2018 to 2022. Their time together involved multiple incidents of domestic violence allegations.

In February 2020, Hickerson allegedly punched the former child actress “with a closed fist on the right side of her face”.

Hayden Panettiere attends the Global Premiere of Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group's 'Scream VI' at AMC Lincoln Square on March 6, 2023, in New York (Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)

Hayden Panettiere revealed how hard it was to get out of an abusive relationship

The late ‘Nashville’ star, who was the mother of a young daughter, opened up about abuse in her memoir, ‘This Is Me: A Reckoning', which was released in May.

She told Us Weekly, “Getting an abusive person out of your life is like trying to rip a weed out that is so entangled into your life, and every time you pull it out another weed pops back up and you’re like, I thought I killed this. They always manage to find a way to slither back in, even if you’re an incredibly strong-willed person.”

Elsewhere during the interview, Panettiere noted that being a domestic violence victim shocked her too.

“I’ve always seen myself as such a resilient and strong woman. The idea that I could allow something like this to happen to me blew my mind. It blew the minds of the people that knew me best. So that whole experience, I kept as much of it to myself as possible because I didn’t want to drag anybody that I loved into [it], because I knew that they would want to protect me, and I wanted to keep them safe and emotionally safe. It was humiliating,” she added.

Brian Hickerson made a startling comment about his abusive behavior

In May, Hickerson also talked about one particular incident that he did not want Panettiere to mention in her book but she did.

“There’s a story where I was drunk, right? Hayden was standing across the room and I had a phone in my hand and I said, ‘Hayden, I’ll give you 10 seconds to run as fast as you can before I throw it at you,’” he revealed.

“Who wants to read something about themselves, right? But you gotta be vulnerable and I did it. I did it, so,” Hickerson added.