- Ohio became the last state to make strangulation a felony last year.
- In Summit County, the majority of strangulation cases so far have resulted in probation instead of prison.
- How the law is being implemented across Ohio, varies, victim advocates say.
As her estranged husband held her against the wall, squeezing her neck with both hands, a Barberton woman kept thinking, “I have to get free.”
She tried to grab his head and face as he stared at her with an odd, toothy smile.
He then grabbed her arms with one hand, keeping his other hand on her neck.
“I just wanted desperately to breathe,” the 46-year-old woman recalled.
He finally let go, and she gasped for air. As soon as she could scream, she yelled for her roommate to call 911.
Police took her estranged husband into custody, charging him with domestic violence and strangulation in the May incident.
The man, who isn’t being named to protect the victim’s identity for safety reasons, was among the first people in Summit County charged under a law effective in April that made strangulation a felony.