PORT ANGELES — A 31-year-old Port Angeles man has been charged with attempted second-degree murder for allegedly choking his girlfriend to the point of losing consciousness.
Jordan S.B. Williams will be arraigned Oct. 3 in Clallam County Superior Court.
Williams was charged in Superior Court on Wednesday with attempted second-degree murder-intentional murder domestic violence.
Attempted second-degree murder is a Class A felony with a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $50,000 fine.
Williams is being held in the Clallam County jail on $250,000 bail.
He was ordered to have no contact with the alleged victim.
Police report
Port Angeles police said Williams choked and hit his 28-year-old girlfriend in her apartment until she barricaded herself in a bedroom and phoned 9-1-1 at 3:39 a.m. Sept. 19.
The woman was found coughing, gasping and wheezing, and had red marks and scratches on her neck, Officer Michael Johnson wrote in the arrest narrative.
She told police Williams “choked me like he was trying to rip my vocal chords out” and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the attack, court papers said.
The woman was admitted to Olympic Medical Center’s critical care unit with throat injuries last Friday. She was downgraded to satisfactory condition later that day.
OMC officials had no record of her in the hospital Thursday.
Johnson wrote in the arrest narrative that Williams could be heard saying he was going to “kill the cops” when officers arrived at the Lee Plaza apartment.
Dispatchers overheard a male threatening “suicide by cop” when the woman phoned 9-1-1.
“Jordan Williams came to the door and stood menacingly in the doorway, posturing, with fists clenched,” Johnson wrote in the case report.
“Williams was profusely sweating, agitated, glaring at officers.”
The “combative and uncooperative” man was eventually handcuffed after officers threatened to use a Taser on him.
Threats
The woman told police Williams threatened to kill her, her dog, other people and the cops as he grabbed her by the throat and choked her.
She “fought to pull Williams’ hands away from her neck but Williams overpowered her efforts and continued to choke her,” Johnson wrote.
The alleged victim remembered thinking “he might actually kill me” as she was being choked, Johnson said.
She told police she remembered “losing time” as she was being choked and was “brought back” by the pain of her attacker’s fingernails digging into her neck.
Williams claimed the woman attacked him and that he acted in self-defense, police said.
The same woman phoned police earlier this year after Williams caused a disturbance and scared her, court papers said.
She mentioned “previous disturbances that had occurred and times that she had needed help that had gone unreported,” Johnson said.
“I had told [the woman] that we could only help her if she called.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
