Island man sentenced for assault
Photo by Steve Myrick
Miguel G. Gonsalves, following his guilty plea on an assault charge in Edgartown District Court.
Edgartown District Court presiding justice H. Gregory Williams sentenced an Edgartown man with a lengthy criminal record to 18 months in a house of correction for assaulting a woman.
Miguel G. Gonsalves, 29, pled guilty Tuesday to assault and battery as part of a plea agreement. Police arrested him following the attack last August.
Cape and Island assistant district attorney Laura Marshard told the court the victim was taken to the Martha's Vineyard Hospital and then flown by Medflight to a Boston hospital, where she was treated for a crushed windpipe.
"The victim would testify, after a night out in Oak Bluffs, she and the defendant returned to her home," Ms. Marshard told the court. "He put his hands around her neck and attempted to strangle her for about 15 seconds."
Mr. Gonsalves has a lengthy record of arrests, convictions, and incarcerations for numerous assaults, dating back more than 12 years. State courts issued seven different restraining orders during that period. He is currently serving a house of corrections sentence for an assault conviction in Lynn district court.
Judge Williams sentenced Mr. Gonsalves to 2.5 years in a house of correction, with 18 months to serve, and the balance suspended for two years of supervised probation.
