A 23-year-old Hamilton County man is facing a stack of felony charges, including aggravated burglary, felonious assault and strangulation, after investigators say he broke a woman's apartment window with a rock and attacked her — weeks after allegedly punching and stabbing her in a separate incident. Diego Robinson was arrested Tuesday and pleaded not guilty in court on Wednesday.
According to WLWT, police reported that Robinson punched the victim in July and is accused of stabbing her multiple times during that same period, along with assaulting another person who was in the apartment at the time. Investigators say Robinson then returned to the woman's apartment on Sunday, breaking a window with a rock to force his way inside. He is now being held on bond, and additional court dates are scheduled for next week.
Robinson's defense has said that it was the victim, not Robinson, who was holding the knife during the incident — a claim that has not been resolved and stands in direct conflict with the account attributed to police.
Booking Records Detail Additional Charges
While the seed report outlined allegations of punching, stabbing and a window break-in, booking records published by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office and shared on Facebook show Robinson was formally charged with aggravated burglary, felonious assault, strangulation, burglary, domestic violence and assault following his August 25 arrest. Aggravated burglary is classified as a first-degree felony under Ohio Revised Code Section 2911.11 when an offender forcibly enters an occupied home with a deadly weapon or causes physical harm. Felonious assault involving a weapon like a knife is a second-degree felony under Ohio Revised Code Section 2903.11, carrying a potential prison term of two to eight years and fines up to $15,000, according to Zukerman Law.
The strangulation count is notable because Ohio recently elevated non-fatal strangulation to a standalone felony offense, a change from when choking in domestic disputes was typically prosecuted only as misdemeanor assault, per Watson Kuhlman. Strangulation is widely recognized as a major warning sign of severe intimate partner violence.
A Regional Surge in Domestic Violence Cases
The charges against Robinson land amid what local officials describe as a sharp rise in domestic violence cases across the region. Statistics from the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office reported by Local 12 show the number of domestic violence cases prosecuted countywide doubled between 2024 and 2025. Cincinnati police data cited in the same report found that reported strangulation incidents in the city rose more than 50% year-to-date compared to 2025.
The scale of the problem also shows up in local hospital data. A October 2025 report from the Hamilton County Domestic Violence Task Force found that up to 70% to 75% of domestic violence patients evaluated monthly in TriHealth hospital emergency departments reported experiencing strangulation. The same task force report noted a 15% increase in petitioners completing civil protection order filings after the county added specialized court magistrates and safe waiting spaces to reduce drop-off among victims seeking protection.
Resources and Open Questions
The Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team, run by the nonprofit Women Helping Women alongside law enforcement, provides 24/7 rapid crisis response across all 49 municipal jurisdictions in Hamilton County. A 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that roughly half of domestic violence survivors experience a re-occurrence of abuse within 12 months — a pattern that echoes the timeline alleged in Robinson's case, in which he is accused of assaulting the victim in July before allegedly breaking into her home again in August.
Several questions remain unresolved. It is not publicly known whether a civil protection order had been filed against Robinson between the alleged July assault and the August break-in, and the specific bond amount set at his initial arraignment has not been disclosed. Robinson has pleaded not guilty, and his case continues with additional court dates scheduled for next week.
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