Inset: Jacob Daniel Vega (McLennan County Sheriff's Office). Background: The street where Vega allegedly attacked his pregnant wife in Waco, Tex. (Google Maps).
A Texas man was recently arrested after strangling his pregnant wife in front of their young child, police in the Lone Star State say.
Jacob Daniel Vega, 40, stands accused of aggravated assault – family violence, according to the Waco Police Department.
The underlying incident occurred on Monday at a residence on Misty Drive in Waco, a medium-sized city located roughly 100 miles northwest of Austin.
Late in the morning, a woman called 911 and said, "I can't take this anymore," and then explained that she "got into it with someone," according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Waco-based CBS and Telemundo affiliate KWTX.
When officers arrived at the residence, Vega walked toward a patrol car and said he and his wife had just been in an altercation, police said.
The defendant went on to tell the responding officers the couple had been arguing because he was inside the bedroom with the door locked and that his wife was repeatedly banging on the door, according to the affidavit. The man said he eventually got angry, opened the door, and then took a shoe rack from the couple's bedroom and put it in their children's bedroom.
After the shoe rack incident, the woman started screaming and Vega "lost it," the defendant said, according to the charging document.
Vega then told the officers that he and his wife had been putting their hands on one another and he wound up sitting on top of her and ultimately began to strangle her, police said. Then, the defendant allegedly told the officers they should go check on the victim. After that, Vega was handcuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car.
Officers next spoke with the defendant's wife, who was sitting on the floor with the couple's child, who was crawling around near her. The woman complained that her legs were numb and her throat hurt, the affidavit says.
The victim said Vega had strangled her for about two to three minutes, police said. Officers noted the presence of broken blood vessels in both of her eyes and redness on her neck, according to the charging document. The victim also echoed a key detail of the defendant's story – telling police Vega had strangled her with both of his hands while he was sitting on top of her, law enforcement said.
At the time of the incident, the woman was seven weeks pregnant, police said. The couple has been married for six years and has lived together for the past two years, according to law enforcement.
The woman said the couple's child was in the bedroom while the attack occurred, according to the affidavit. The strangulation only stopped when she went limp in the defendant's hands, the victim told police.
The wife was taken to nearby Hillcrest Hospital for evaluation, police said. Vega was arrested and booked in the McLennan County Jail. Records do not currently list the defendant as an inmate.
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