BELFAST, Maine — A Unity man will spend nine months in jail after pleading guilty to several domestic violence-related criminal charges.
Andrew Stewart, 29, came to the attention of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office the night of Aug. 18 when deputies responded to a report of a domestic disturbance on the Bangor Road. Deputy Dean Jackson spoke with a woman who told him that after Stewart came home from work he began to yell at her because she hadn’t cooked him food.
“The argument escalated and Andrew became enraged, telling [the woman] he was going to kill her and burn down her family’s house … as well as the apartment,” Jackson wrote in an affidavit filed at Waldo County Court. “[The woman] stated at some point in the argument Andrew had smashed his head into her forehead and she reported feeling nauseous and dizzy.”
Jackson asked the woman if she felt that Stewart “was going to actually kill her,” and she told him she did, because he had assaulted her so severely in the past, according to the affidavit.
“She is in fear for her life,” the deputy wrote.
The woman told the deputy that Stewart had taken her phone away to prevent her calling for help, so she ran to a neighbor’s house to call police.
Meanwhile, two other deputies had found Stewart hiding in a field near the house, Jackson wrote. The Unity man told the officers that he never touched the woman and she was making the whole thing up. Police arrested him and charged him in connection with the reported domestic violence assault.
On Tuesday, Nov. 10, Stewart pleaded guilty to domestic violence assault, domestic violence terrorizing, obstructing the report of a crime and violating conditions of release from a prior offense. He was sentenced to nine months in Waldo County Jail.