A 31-year-old Hempfield man is in the county prison after state troopers say he severely beat and choked a woman with a television cable and threatened her with a shotgun.
Cody J. Mattei was arrested Sunday after the woman was able to escape a residence in the 100 block of Lambert Lane and call for help, police said.
The woman reported the assault began about noon Saturday inside the residence and continued into Sunday, Trooper Martin Mihelic wrote in court papers.
The woman told investigators that Mattei repeatedly threatened to kill her, at one point “placing a pillow over her face,” Mihelic wrote.
“Mattei also placed a HDMI cable around (the woman’s) neck and applied pressure, constricting her breathing until she passed out,” Mihelic wrote.
Mattei pointed a shotgun at the woman and demanded she admit to an unspecified crime that he had recently committed as he recorded her confession on his cellphone, police said.
The woman ran out the front door to a neighbor’s home early Sunday afternoon and was able to telephone 911. At the same time, Mattei fled in a white Toyota SUV, taking the woman’s .22 caliber handgun and the shotgun, Mihelic wrote.
The woman required medical attention, police said.
Mattei, who used to live in Delmont, is charged with aggravated assault, intimidating a witness, illegal possession of firearms by a convicted felon, terroristic threats, simple assault, strangulation and theft.
According to online court dockets, it is illegal for Mattei to own a firearm because of a 2016 felony conviction for burglary in Loyalhanna Township.
