By Brandi Makuski

A Stevens Point man who was convicted in June for stealing a truck is now facing domestic abuse charges.

Dakota Wood, 21, faces charges of strangulation and suffocation, misdemeanor battery, criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct after police responded to an incident at a Prairie St. home on Nov. 1. A woman at the residence told officers she broke up with Wood the previous evening but he returned to the home several times afterward and became violent.

According to the criminal complaint, an intoxicated Wood, who the woman said appeared angry, first returned to the home in the late afternoon, when he grabbed the woman by the throat, choking her, before pushing her body into the closet. The woman told police she believes she lost consciousness during the attack.

Wood also broke the woman’s phone and a mirror during the struggle, and threatened to kill her as he brandished a kitchen knife, according to the complaint.

The woman was able to escape further attack by kicking him in the stomach, after which she ran to a neighbor’s home to help.

Wood’s blood alcohol content at his time of arrest was .165 percent.

Wood is currently on probation after being convicted of stealing a truck belonging to his mother’s boyfriend and driving under the influence. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and two years of probation in June, after admitting he intentionally took the truck and crashed it into several mailboxes before hitting a tree on Torun Rd. on Jan. 4. At the time, Wood told authorities he had been suicidal.

He returns to court on Nov. 9.