By Aryal Aglugub
MODESTO, CA– This week in Stanislaus County Superior Court, a preliminary hearing was held for a man regarding a domestic violence dispute in which he was facing multiple felonies. (The Vanguard will not disclose the man’s name to protect the identities of the victim and family).
The judge ruled the man would be going to trial based on evidence at the prelim.
The first witness called to the stand was the victim, the man’s wife, who testified about the multiple times that the accused had allegedly abused her.
According to the victim, on Oct. 8, 2020, she called the police after she and her husband had an argument that escalated physically.
The victim stated that she was trying to end the relationship with the man when “he snapped on me, and said you’re not taking my kids away from me, and that’s when things started getting real physical.”
The victim went on to state the accused allegedly dragging the victim onto the bed, where he began to strangle her.
When Deputy District Attorney Timothy Keaton asked about other factors that may have started the altercation, the victim said the accused had gotten another woman pregnant, and that this infidelity has been a root cause in the recent altercations that have erupted between the two.
The victim stated this was not the first instance of physical abuse, and the accused had even done it in front of their two daughters.
The next witness, Officer Tyler Eppler, said he interviewed the daughters of the couple. He reported that he asked many questions to the young girls, asking if they had witnessed any abuse between their parents.
Eppler said one of the daughters had said to him, “She heard her parents arguing in her mother’s bedroom, she entered into the bedroom and observed (the accused) grab [the victim] by the neck.”
Judge Shawn Bessey said the accused has five felony charges against him including two counts of assault causing bodily harm, one count of intimidating a victim or witness, one count of deliberate injuring of a spouse, and one count of communication of criminal threats.
There was a sixth charge of corporal injury but it was dismissed by the judge because there was no evidence of injury.
The judge ruled the case on the five other charges will go to trial.
