A Blackfoot man has been charged after allegedly strangling and repeatedly punching a pregnant woman in the stomach during a domestic violence episode.
Ruben Hernandez, 34, was charged with offenses including robbery, grand theft, domestic abuse with traumatic injury, aggravated battery causing harm to a pregnant woman or fetus, and attempted strangulation.
If proven guilty, he faces up to 51.5 years in prison.
According to court filings, an officer from the Idaho Falls Police Department was dispatched to the residence in Idaho Falls at 3:30 a.m. on March 4. A 33-week-pregnant woman told dispatch that Hernandez had stolen her vehicle and debit card, beaten her, and hit her many times in her pregnant tummy.
The officer stated that the woman’s jaw was inclined to the left and crooked, with red scars on both sides of her face and scratch marks on her upper chest, right, and left cheeks. The officer also discovered scratches on her upper chest.
When questioned about what had happened before phoning 911, the woman explained that she had picked up Hernandez from a friend’s house. She declined the man’s request to drop him off at a different location while driving back.
This irritated Hernandez, and the woman claims he later slapped her. She ordered him out of the car, and he obeyed.
The woman then received a call from him to be picked up at a mutual friend’s house, and when she parked outside, she noticed Hernandez go up to the car. According to the paperwork, the man unlocked the driver’s door, assaulted her, and then escaped with her car and phone.
During this time, the woman told the police that Hernandez had strangled her, hit her repeatedly in the stomach, and attempted to break her arm against the car’s door frame.
After the strikes to her stomach, the woman told the police she thought her water had burst.
When asked if Hernandez had ever hit her before, the woman answered yes, but not to this extent.
When the police interviewed a mutual acquaintance about the incident, he stated that he never witnessed a physical fight but rather the duo debating on the lawn after hearing a woman scream.
Hernandez is due to appear for a preliminary hearing before 7th Judicial Magistrate Judge Wiley Dennert at 1 p.m. on April 1.
Although Hernandez faces charges for these offenses, this does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is deemed innocent until proven guilty.