Jon’terio Z. Horton, 25, was charged with aggravated assault involving strangulation and aggravated trespass and held on $50,000 bond, according to court records cited in the Hendersonville Standard. The report said he was booked into the Sumner County Jail and scheduled to appear in General Sessions Court on Sept. 29.
The Standard reported that Horton told police he suspected his girlfriend was unfaithful after hearing her speak with another man by phone; he alleged she threatened him with a gun and hit him. The woman gave a different account, telling police Horton entered the Jamestown Place residence through a bedroom window after she had told him to leave. She alleged that he took a gun and later a knife, threatened to kill her, and strangled her on a bed.
According to the Standard’s account, police noted a mark around the woman’s neck and a broken screen outside the home. Officers reportedly found no apparent physical injury to Horton but observed bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and an odor of alcohol. The report said police took him into custody without incident.
A Davidson County grand jury reviewed 997 felony cases during its spring term and identified strangulation in domestic-violence cases as a concern. Jurors said it was often the first violent act in the cases they reviewed and described such cases as potential warnings of more severe violence, according to WKRN.
What Tennessee reviews say about strangulation
According to Nashville’s Office of Family Safety, strangulation increases a person’s risk of being killed more than sevenfold. The office cites that concern in describing its domestic-abuse fatality-review work. The office says Tennessee’s Statewide Fatal & High-Risk Domestic Violence Committee was formed in May 2020 as part of the statewide fatality-review initiative and currently meets quarterly.
Regional reporting has also described a Bowling Green, Kentucky, case in which a U.S. National Guard member was accused of strangling a woman until she lost consciousness, according to WVLT. Horton’s case remains at an early stage, and the supplied reporting contains no later update on its progress.
