(SUGAR LAND) – A 38-year-old Sugar Land man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of assaulting his girlfriend with a hatchet. James Augustine Gomez elected for 458th District Court Judge Robert Rolnick to decide his punishment for the aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge.
According to lead prosecutor Melanie Rozbicki, the victim’s brother called 911 on Nov. 4, 2020 to report that his sister said her live-in boyfriend, Gomez, struck her in the face with a hatchet. The victim testified during the trial that she and Gomez were circling around the room of their apartment as he accused her of cheating, hatchet in hand, before lunging and striking her with it. The woman stated that she turned her face away, resulting in a cut on her cheek, before wrestling the hatchet out of the defendant’s hands.
She told the jury that the defendant had broken her phone with a hammer and would not let her seek medical attention, so she liquid-bandaged her cheek together. The victim was able to escape days later when the defendant left her and their two infant children in the car and she drove to the safety of her family’s house outside of Texas.
“Gomez told his victim that she would remember that scar for the rest of her life,” said Rozbicki, “but he has ten years in prison to remember what he did to her. And he won’t forget that.”
Gomez had a prior felony conviction and was not probation eligible. He will have to serve at least half of his sentence before eligible for parole.
Fort Bend County has resources to support victims and survivors of domestic violence. The number to the Fort Bend County Women’s Center Crisis Hotline is (281) 342-HELP (4357) and the tollfree number to the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233.