By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Stillwater man accused of choking his girlfriend in her trailer two days after Christmas has been jailed on $25,000 bail on his fourth domestic violence charge, on which he has been scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon.
Due to his criminal record, Mark Edward Williams, 38, who was already on probation for burglary and domestic violence, could be given a prison term of nine years to life if convicted of his latest charge, court records show.
Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Justin Henninger was sent about 9 a.m. on Dec. 28 to a woman’s trailer in rural Stillwater “for a stand-by keep the peace call,” since the owner was kicking Williams out of the property, an affidavit alleged.
The property owner said she believed that Williams had already left, but wasn’t sure and pointed toward the trailer where he and his girlfriend were staying, the affidavit said.
When Williams’ girlfriend answered the door in her robe, “I immediately saw markings on her neck and I asked her what had happened,” the deputy wrote in his affidavit.
“She told me she was sleeping in the bed and she woke up with Mark on top of her with his hands around her neck…She told me that she had scratched his face trying to get him off of her.
“She also told me, ‘when he usually chokes me, when he stops I open my big fat mouth and he chokes me again. She further told me she didn’t think he was going to stop choking her this time,” the deputy wrote in his affidavit.
Asked if she knew where Williams had gone, the woman said he took her vehicle and her cell phone to his other residence to attempt to fix his vehicle, but when the deputy went there, her vehicle was not there, the affidavit alleged.
Due to the injuries around her neck and also her left ear, the deputy believed Williams was the aggressor, according to his affidavit.
About four hours later, the deputy was again sent to the same trailer because Williams had shown back up and left walking westbound, the affidavit said.
Williams was arrested after Sheriff’s Deputy Tomm Edwards located Williams pulling a red suitcase west of McElroy and Union Road, the affidavit said.
Williams had scratches on both sides of his face and just under his left breast when he was interviewed in the Payne County Jail, the affidavit said.
Williams said that he was the victim and that his girlfriend came after him with a knife, the affidavit alleged.
Williams said that his girlfriend had been drinking and urinated on the bed and couch, the affidavit alleged.
“Mark told me he was upset and started yelling. He told me that (his girlfriend) grabbed a knife and came after him. He told me he put his hand on her neck area to get her away,” the deputy wrote in his affidavit.
According to Payne County court records, Williams had previously been convicted of:
* second-degree burglary in 2016 for which he was placed on five years’ probation in February of 2019 with an order to pay $4,826 restitution;
* domestic assault and battery as a subsequent offense in 2015 for which he was placed on a concurrent four years’ probation in February of 2019;
* domestic assault and battery on another occasion in 2015 for which he was given a 60-day jail term in May of 2015;
* domestic assault and battery in 2014 for which he was placed on one year’s probation in May of 2015.
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