Warren man gets 16 years in prison for choking girlfriend, then stabbing her 5 times

Staff report

WARREN

Jacob J. Asbury, 33, of Adelaide Avenue Southeast, was sentenced to 16 years in prison Monday for stabbing and choking his girlfriend in her Tod Avenue Southwest Warren Township home Oct. 5, 2015.

In Monday’s hearing in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, Asbury apologized for the crimes, and the victim asked Judge Peter Kontos in a letter that Asbury not receive the longest possible sentence.

Judge Peter Kontos sentenced Asbury to the prison term recommended by Chris Becker, the assistant county prosecutor who handled the case.

In a videotaped interview played during Asbury’s trial earlier this month, Asbury told a detective he “lost control” after he and the woman argued, then put her in a “sleeper hold,” which caused her to lose consciousness and stabbed her twice in the neck with a paring knife.

Becker said the woman actually suffered two stab wounds to her neck and single stab wounds to her head, back and hand.

“By both the victim and defendant’s accounts, they were merely talking on the couch when the defendant choked the victim and then stabbed her as she lay unconcious,” Becker said in a sentencing memorandum to the judge.

Asbury drove the woman to ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital, where she was transferred to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital for “a number of days,” Becker said.

Asbury was arrested in the Trumbull Memorial parking lot.

Becker said the woman had contacted Asbury that day and invited him to her home.

Their relationship was “on again, off again,” Becker said.

They had sex, then talked in the living room about the future of their relationship, Becker said. That led to the assaults.

The woman said she realized she was bleeding when she regained consciousness, then placed a towel on her neck and called 911.

A jury found Asbury guilty of two counts of felonious assault and one count of attempted murder.