Chester man gets 3-6 years in beating, choking woman

MEDIA COURTHOUSE » A Chester man was sentenced to three to six years in a state prison after pleading guilty to charges of simple assault, theft and strangulation for choking and beating an ex-girlfriend in April.

Rahim Smith, 42, was also ordered to stay away from the victim and her residence, and to provide a DNA sample to state police.

The victim said at a preliminary hearing in August that she had texted Smith on April 13 or 14 and told him she no longer wanted anything to do with him due to his habits. They were not dating at that time, she said.

She said Smith came over to her grandmother’s house, where she was staying, and collected his things. The two got into a minor argument at that time and Smith stole her phone, she said, but she later got it back.

Later that night, she said Smith called the grandmother asking if he could spend the night there.

The victim said she was fine with it but would not speak with Smith and was going to bed.

The woman said she was asleep in bed with her 3-year-old daughter that night when Smith twice woke her up, about five minutes apart, and tried to get her to come into another room to speak with him about what happened earlier.

She said she refused both times and promptly fell back asleep.

“The third time he tried to wake me up, he was on top of me, strangling me,” she said. “He had his arms around my neck and I was trying to get him off of me.”

The assault

The victim said Smith had both hands around her throat for about a minute and she could not breathe. She said he also brought her face up to hers, growling, and bit her lip.

Eventually Smith got off the victim and ran for the front door, she testified. As he was making his way out, she told him to leave. The woman said she believes that may have triggered something in him.

“He turned and came back, picked me up by my neck (and) threw me into a chair,” she said. “The chair broke. All the legs came off the chair. He pushed me into the kitchen and proceeded to rip all of my clothes off.”

The woman said Smith was standing over her, beating her arms, legs and sides with one of the wooden chair legs as she laid on the floor. Her grandmother, who had been in the living room, meanwhile got out of her wheelchair, picked up another chair leg and began hitting Smith in the back, she said.

The victim said she tried to use a house phone to call the police, but she does not know if she was successful in placing the call because Smith ripped it out of her hands. Her grandmother may also have called 911, she said.

At one point, she said Smith dragged her from the kitchen to the living room by her hair. She was eventually able to flee the house in search of help.

The aftermath

The woman estimated the assault went on for 30 or 40 minutes. The child somehow slept through the entire ordeal, only waking up as neighbors tried to get Smith out of the house.

Smith had been charged with strangulation, simple and aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, harassment, theft, criminal mischief and endangering the welfare of a child. The remaining charges were dismissed under the plea.

Court of Common Pleas Judge

Kevin F. Kelly deemed the plea offered by Assistant District Attorney Daniel Curry and defense attorney Stephen Ciarrocchi a “hybrid” open and negotiated plea, as the attorneys had agreed on a concurrent six to 12 months for the assault and theft charges, but left the strangulation charge open for Kelly to sentence.

Curry sought a sentence of four to eight years on that charge, in line with sentencing guidelines and Smith’s prior record history.

Ciarrocchi argued for two to four years, noting his client’s most major contributor to his prior record was a robbery from 1999 and that he had only had minor infractions since then.

Smith, a father of six, said he works as a mechanic but also regularly volunteers as a caregiver and has been doing that in the medical unit while at the county jail. He is involved in all of his children’s lives and is currently taking anger management and intervention classes, he said.

Smith is not eligible for early release, but was given credit for time served back to his arrest in Georgia on June 6.