A 36-year-old Aurora man was sentenced to 84 years in prison on Oct. 23 after an Adams County jury found he had abused his girlfriend and her young daughter over a period of years, subjecting them to strangulation, beatings with household objects, and death threats before the pair managed to escape to a shelter. Thomas Yorks was convicted on multiple felony counts stemming from the abuse, which prosecutors say included repeated strangulation attacks against the woman and one assault in which he nearly broke her neck.
According to KDVR, the case began on April 18, 2024, when Aurora police responded to a local shelter after the woman fled her apartment with her children. The woman told investigators she and Yorks had been together for three years and shared two children, and that the violence had escalated steadily — including the final strangulation attempt that nearly broke her neck, which she described as the last of several such attacks. Court officials say Yorks had confiscated her phone and used cameras to monitor her inside the home, and the woman said she had effectively been held hostage for approximately a year before she was able to leave, according to Sentinel Colorado.
A Yearlong Pattern of Violence
Officials say the woman reported being punched, choked, beaten and threatened with death, and that she was at times prevented from leaving the apartment. She also told investigators Yorks struck her in the head with a crowbar and whipped her with a belt and a broom handle, and that he attempted to break her neck against a couch armrest during one assault, per the Sentinel's reporting.
The abuse extended to the woman's child as well. According to the same account, police documented visible bruising, swelling and discoloration on one child in April, and the child reported being punched in the face days earlier and choked unconscious two days before officers responded. The child also described being beaten with broomsticks and cords, handcuffed to a chair, and deprived of a place to sleep and of food, Sentinel Colorado reported.
Jury Convicts on Sweeping Charges
An Adams County jury convicted Yorks on July 9, 2026, on charges tied to the abuse of both his girlfriend and her daughter, the station reports. The conviction included first-degree assault involving strangulation and domestic violence, second-degree assault causing serious bodily injury, three counts of third-degree assault, child abuse causing injury and involving a pattern of injury, witness or victim tampering, retaliation, bribery, and violating a protection order.
Judge Jeffrey Ruff of the Adams County District Court handed down the 84-year sentence on Oct. 23, a term that was enhanced because of Yorks's extensive criminal history. That history includes prior convictions for attempted distribution of a controlled substance, attempted child abuse involving negligently causing injury, and attempted second-degree assault with a deadly weapon — a record that pushed the case under Colorado's habitual criminal sentencing provisions on three counts.
Aurora police investigators also confirmed Yorks's gang affiliation as part of the case, the station's report notes. In a statement from the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, District Attorney Brian Mason said “the level of brutality in this case is truly staggering,” adding that the sentence reflects the profound violence and terror endured by the victims and ensures Yorks can no longer harm them or anyone else.
Part of a Troubling Statewide Pattern
The case lands amid fresh statewide data on domestic violence in Colorado. A fatality review found that 78 people died across 57 domestic-violence-related cases in 2025, six more deaths than the year before, according to Colorado Public Radio. Firearms were used in 82% of those deaths, and 52 of the 57 cases involved female victims and male perpetrators, the outlet reported.
The same report found that about 30% of perpetrators in last year's fatal cases had previously been arrested for domestic violence, and that children were home during the fatality in at least 15 cases, witnessing the death itself in seven of them. Those statewide figures don't describe the Aurora case directly, but they underscore how often warning signs — and children — are present in Colorado's most severe domestic violence cases.
