Case advances for man accused of beating wife
CHICORA — The case against Garrett M. Mauthe of Butler will move forward to the county level following a Tuesday preliminary hearing.
Mauthe is accused of beating his wife and strangling a 17-year-old boy before leading police on a high-speed chase on Feb. 21.He has been charged with felony counts of strangulation, fleeing from officers and a third-offense DUI. He is also charged with two misdemeanors of simple assault, 17 traffic violations and two summary harassment offenses.Free on $30,000 bond, Mauthe appeared in court alongside his attorney, John Haller.The wife also appeared in court and gave testimony.“Garrett came home drunk,” she said. “He wanted to fight. I did not want to fight.”The wife described trying to ignore Mauthe, who she said was severely drunk. She said she tried to go to the bedroom, and he followed her. She said he began hitting her and at one point slammed her arm in the door.The wife said her 17-year-old son entered the hallway from a different room, yelling for Mauthe to stop hitting his mother.“As soon as he saw my son, he instantly went at him,” she said. “(Mauthe) told him he was going to kill him.”The wife said she saw Mauthe punch her son and place the boy in a choke hold, so she began to fight back, punching at Mauthe.“(Mauthe) had him in a choke hold to the point, (my son) was turning blue,” she said. “I had to get him off my boy.”During cross-examination, Haller asked the wife, if at any point while fighting back, was Mauthe on the ground and she and her son still punching him. She said that was true, and she felt she had to do so because he kept trying to reengage them when he got back up.The wife said Mauthe then left the home, and she called the police. Multiple state police units were dispatched along with a report of a Mauthe leaving a possible domestic altercation in a pickup.Shortly after the call, Trooper Michael Torres encountered the truck traveling in the opposite direction he was driving, according to his testimony.Torres said a chase ensued, and he estimated Mauthe's speed to be about 90 mph, based on his own speedometer. Torres said he saw Mauthe crash his truck, and when other officers arrived, Mauthe was arrested.“Later, I observed a significant amount of beer, both full and empty cans,” Torres said.Another trooper told the court that Mauthe refused to have his blood tested at the hospital.District Judge Lewis Stoughton moved all of the charges on to Common Pleas court, where Mauthe is expected to appear July 19 for a formal arraignment.Following the hearing, neither Haller nor Mauthe wished to comment on the case.
