A Ronan man will spend up to 10 years in Montana State Prison for strangling his girlfriend until she began to loose consciousness. 

Emery John Smith II, 42, was given a 20-year sentence with 10 years suspended by Lake County District Court Judge James A. Manley last week.  

According to an affidavit, tribal police received a call on March 11, 2015, from Smith’s girlfriend who said Smith had broken into her home in Ronan. Responding officers found the front door of the residence damaged and Smith’s girlfriend sitting in the living room. She told officers that an intoxicated Smith had become angry that she wasn’t drinking with him and the two entered into a screaming match. The fight eventually turned physical and Smith placed the alleged victim in a chokehold, the affidavit states. The woman said she felt her body go loose and thought she was going to die. She told officers that Smith allowed her to breath sporadically and during those periods she asked Smith nicely to let her go. She said speaking to him this way helped save her life, according to the affidavit. 

Officers documented red marks on the victim’s neck and hemorrhaged blood vessels in her eye.

Smith’s defense attorney Benjamin Darrow had originally negotiated a plea deal that called for 10-year sentence with five years suspended. Judge Manley rejected the deal, however, noting the gravity of the charges.

“You’re like a lot of people around here who aren’t bad, but when you start drinking or using drugs you get very violent,” Manley told Smith during the sentencing. “It’s my job to impress how serious that is.”

Smith’s sentence carries a parole restriction for the first four years.