Auburn Police say an Auburn man tried to strangle his girlfriend on April 25, 2021, and in so doing has violated a 2020, no-contact protection order.

On April 28, the King County Prosecutor’s Office formally charged Bryan Martinez, 32, with one count of second-degree assault and one count of felony violation of the protection order King County District Court issued on Jan 27, 2020.

Martinez is in King County Jail on $50,000 bail.

“This is a very serious indication of a potential lethality for this victim,” Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Violetta Stringer told the Superior Court judge at Martinez’s bail hearing. “Victims who have been non-fatally strangled are eight times more likely to become a subsequent victim of homicide at the hands of the same abusive partner.”

When a victim is strangled, Stringer added, loss of consciousness can occur in seconds, and death within several minutes.

Here, according to the Certification for Determination of Probable Cause, is what happened.

On the morning of April 25, a woman called Auburn Police to report a physical domestic dispute with her boyfriend, Martinez, whom she said had just left the scene in a vehicle.

According to court papers, the woman told police that at 8 a.m. that day, Martinez had become upset when he read a message on her phone to one of his friends, whereupon he accused her of cheating and called her a “hoe.”

According to court papers, the woman told police that at that point, she grabbed his phone and refused to return it. He asked for it back several times, made an unsuccessful grab for it, and smashed her phone on the ground.

According to court papers, the woman told police that Martinez then pushed her backward several times all the way to the back bedroom, where, she said, he grabbed her around the neck, slammed her onto the bed and tried to strangle her, to such an extent that she could not breathe, and she returned his phone.

According to court papers, the woman told police that Martinez tried to strangle her two more times that morning, once against a wall and once more on the bed. She told police she did not lose consciousness, but even as she was talking to officers through tears, she said, she was still seeing blue spots.

According to court papers, officers saw scratches, red marks and bruises on the woman’s arms, and she appeared distraught, fearful and nervous.

According to court papers, Martinez’s rap sheet includes a 2019 malicious mischief domestic violence conviction involving the same woman, and he is the restrained party in the no-contact, post-conviction protection order that followed on Jan. 27, 2020, and is set to expire on Jan. 27, 2025.

According to court papers, Martinez has had three prior warrants out for his arrest for failing to appear for a court hearing, has an active warrant dated Jan. 5, 2021, for failing to comply with the court order related to his 2019 conviction, and has been the restrained party on two prior civil domestic orders.