Marion County deputies were called to an Ocala home Sunday night after a confrontation over a cell phone turned violent.
A woman at the home told deputies that she and 21-year-old Hector Ivan Maldonado Colon, who is unemployed, were arguing in the living room when he attempted to take a cell phone from her. The woman said she paid for the phone and refused to give it to him.
The woman said that during the altercation, Maldonado Colon squeezed her neck and choked her for approximately 10 seconds, a sheriff’s office report states, adding that she was trying to call Maldonado Colon’s friend to come help her but was having a hard time screaming.
When asked if Maldonado Colon’s actions interfered with her breathing, the woman said it did. The woman also said that he released her when he realized she was unable to speak.
But the woman said Maldonado Colon then struck her with his closed right fist on the left side of her face, just behind her left eye. The woman said they separated after that and she called law enforcement for help, at which time Maldonado Colon left the residence, the report says.
The deputy noted an “oval-shaped area” of slight bruising that was beginning to swell behind the woman’s left eye, which she said was painful. The deputy also took note of a slight cut on the right side of the woman’s neck, as well as a scratch on the left of her neck a little lower.
Maldonado Colon was taken into custody at a home in the 6700 block of SE 53rd Place and transported to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with domestic battery and domestic battery by strangulation. He was released Monday night on $2,500 bond and is scheduled to appear in a Marion County courtroom Aug. 7 at 9 a.m.
