Burnsville Man Charged with Strangling Woman During Fight Over Groceries

A Burnsville man has been charged with strangling a woman after the two argued over his failure to buy groceries.

Jasen Boyd Johnson, 30, is charged with domestic assault by strangulation, a felony with a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine. 

Johnson remains in the Dakota County Jail on a $25,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled Aug. 6 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.

According to the criminal complaint, Burnsville police were called to a home in the 400 block of Hemlock Drive just before 10 p.m. July 8 on a report of a domestic altercation.

Police spoke to the victim, who told them that she had returned home about 9 p.m. and found Johnson asleep. When he woke up, they began to argue about his failure to buy groceries for an upcoming visit by a relative.

Johnson got up from the couch, turned over a glass coffee table and grabbed the victim, pushing her over onto the kitchen floor, where she hit her head and her shoulder, according to the complaint. Johnson then put his hands around the victim’s throat and squeezed, preventing her from breathing or speaking, she told police.

The woman told officers that she was “scared and terrified” during the struggle, and that she believed Johnson wasn’t going to let her leave the house.

Johnson dragged the woman into the living room, where he put her in a choke hold, wrapping an arm around her neck, according to the complaint. When she tried to grab her cell phone and enter a code to unlock the keypad, Johnson grabbed it from her hand and threw her on the couch, where he kept her pinned, the complaint charges.

Johnson began to grab the woman’s shorts, tearing them and breaking the zipper, telling her that they should have sex “for old time’s sake,” according to the complaint. The woman refused and was able to get away from him, at which point he “seemed to realize what he was doing” and returned her cell phone, the complaint says.

The victim went to a friend’s house and called police.

When police went to the home on Hemlock Drive, they found Johnson asleep on the couch. They entered the home and arrested him.

Johnson told police that he and the woman had argued about groceries and that he had flipped over the coffee table, according to the complaint. He also acknowledged that he “went after” her knocking her to the ground, but he said he didn’t remember what happened afterward and that he didn’t remember putting his hands around her throat, the complaint says.

Johnson admitted to officers that his actions were “erratic, wrong and not normal for him,” according to the complaint.