Limerick man draws jail time for choking woman.
NORRISTOWN » A Limerick Township man was sent to jail after admitting to choking a woman during a domestic disturbance and to assaulting the woman’s daughter when she tried to intervene.
Kwasi Nyame Sakyi, 44, of the 300 block of Aronomink Drive, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court this week to 11½ to 23 months in the county jail on charges of strangulation and simple assault in connection with a July 8, 2017, incident at the Limerick residence. Judge Risa Vetri Ferman also ordered Sakyi to complete 12 years of probation following parole.
The judge ordered Sakyi to have no contact with the victim or her children as a condition of the sentence. Sakyi also must undergo a psychological evaluation and comply with any recommendations for treatment. Sakyi is eligible for the jail’s work release program during his period of incarceration.
Assistant District Attorney Lauren Marvel sought jail time against Sakyi.
“He was losing control of the people living in his home and he needed to keep that control by terrorizing them and assaulting them,” Marvel said when Sakyi pleaded guilty to the charges earlier this year.
The victim told police that she and Sakyi had an argument at the residence during which Sakyi pushed her into a bedroom door and placed his hands on her throat, according to the criminal complaint filed by Limerick Township Police Officer Michael Hull.
“(The woman) reported that he applied enough pressure that he left marks on her neck where his hands had been,” Hull alleged in the arrest affidavit.
The woman’s adult daughter also was in the home at the time and tried to intervene when she observed Sakyi’s conduct with the victim. Sakyi punched the woman’s daughter in the mouth, an injury that resulted in swelling and a cut to her lip.
The victims provided police with an audio recording of the incident which investigators reviewed.
Sakyi, who was represented by defense lawyer Henry S. Hilles III, also pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of children in connection with threats he made to the victim’s 5-year-old son who also was living in the home on July 19, 2017.
The adult victims expressed “concern for the safety of the children and themselves, citing an increase and escalation” in Sakyi’s behavior, according to court documents.
Under state law, by pleading guilty to the strangulation charge Sakyi admitted that he knowingly or intentionally impeded the breathing or circulation of blood of another person by applying pressure to the throat or neck.