The Marion County Sheriff’s Office was notified after a victim was brought into a local emergency room with injuries consistent with domestic abuse.
The victim told the responding deputy that her ex-boyfriend, Antonio Morales-Perez, 24, had an injunction filed against him after he had beaten her in November.
According to reports, the victim had terminated the relationship with Morales-Perez, and they were no longer living together.
The victim stated that on December 3, Morales-Perez demanded that she have sex with him.
When the victim refused, the two began to argue.
According to reports, Morales-Perez became enraged at the victim’s refusal, and with an open hand, slapped her across the face.
The victim told the deputy that [he] continued to slap her as she was screaming.
The victim then ran out of the back door of the residence, but Morales-Perez followed her.
The deputy said the victim tried to run; however, Morales-Perez grabbed her, balled up his fist, and punched her multiple times on the nose and face. He then grabbed the victim’s throat with both hands and choked her to the point where she could not breathe.
That’s when a woman heard screams, ran out of a house, and pulled Morales-Perez off of the victim.
The witness told the deputy that Morales-Perez had the victim in a “choke-hold” when she fought to pull him off of the victim.
The witness then drove the victim to a local hospital.
After interviewing the victim and witness, Morales-Perez was located and arrested.
Morales-Perez does not speak English and was provided with an interpreter prior to being questioned. When asked what had taken place between he and the victim, Morales-Perez refused to answer any questions. He told a Marion County Jail nurse that he did not remember.
Morales-Perez was arrested and charged with Domestic Battery by Strangulation and Violation of a Domestic Violence Injunction.
Morales-Perez is no stranger to law enforcement. OPD, MCSO, and state officials reported that Morales-Perez is an illegal immigrant from Mexico. He entered the United States as a felon with ties to the drug trade and has been in trouble multiple times since his entry.
Morales-Perez was arrested on December 3. According to officials, on December 6, while at the jail, he was re-arrested and charged with Cocaine Sales (x2), Possession of Cocaine with Intent to Sell (x2), and Trafficking in Cocaine.
Information about the circumstances surrounding these charges has not yet been released.
The charges are in addition to the felony domestic battery charges.
Morales-Perez is now being held at the Marion County Jail on no bond. His next court dates are scheduled for December 14, December 27, and January 3, 2017.
MCSO filed a SHIELD (Surviving Harmful Interactions through Electronic Location Devices) Victim Contact/Exclusion Zone Form on behalf of the victim.
On the form it reads: “This program allows low risk, court ordered, pre-trial defendants to be mapped and tracked with a GPS ankle monitor.”
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[If] a judge were to consider Morales-Perez a low risk and order him into the program, he would be released from jail after having already violated the conditions of an injunction order issued on November 8.
According to investigators, the victim suffered “heavy bruising to her nose and areas of her face,” “multiple lacerations on her face,” and “multiple scratches and heavy bruising around her neck.”
Her injuries were photographed and placed into evidence.
(Victim beaten, nearly strangled to death for refusing sex, witness saved her) Suspect was in the U.S illegally….
Posted by Ocala Post on Wednesday, December 7, 2016
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