By Michael Cantu
LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - A district judge sentenced 38-year-old Jesus Bocanegra on Friday to 35 years in prison for aggravated assault - domestic violence after a Lubbock County jury found him guilty.
The verdict comes from a September incident in which Bocanegra was arrested for a severe domestic violence dispute between he and his girlfriend, according to a Lubbock County District Attorney’s Office news release.
Bocanegra sexually assaulted the woman, punched her in the face repeatedly when she tried to leave, strangled her until she passed out, bit a chunk of flesh from her chin and prevented her from leaving the house by threatening her with a box cutter.
She eventually attempted to run out of the house to the neighbors, at which point he tackled her, got on top of her, told her he was going to kill her and that he would mess her up face up so that no man would ever love her again.
Office of the Criminal District Attorney K. Sunshine Stanek
He then began slashing her face and arms with the box cutter. Most of the damage he did was to the woman’s left eye.
After the Lubbock Police Department and EMS responded, the woman was a taken to University Medical Center to have emergency surgery. Doctors later told her she would not regain vision in that eye and it was removed -- she is still waiting for a prosthetic.
Bocanegra ran from the scene but was arrested a week later, according to the release. He offered a variety of explanations for his actions including that it had been an accident, he had acted in self-defense and that she had inflicted the injuries on herself.
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