LEWISTON – A man was charged with attempted murder Friday after police said he repeatedly choked his girlfriend while threatening to kill her during a 30-minute ordeal on Blake Street.
Carlos Portillo, 22, was also charged with criminal restraint and violating release conditions. Portillo lists an address on Mill Street in Auburn but was known to live in an apartment at 166 Blake St. with the woman he is accused of trying to kill.
At about 2 a.m. Friday, the woman called police and reported she had been tormented and assaulted. Officers who arrived found the woman with injuries to her throat and other wounds. She told police Portillo, her boyfriend, had tried to strangle her.
“She told us he choked her and repeatedly threatened her for over a half-hour,” said Lewiston Deputy Chief Michael Bussiere. “At one point, he pressed his foot down on her throat and tried to choke her out that way.”
The woman was taken to a hospital and police began searching for Portillo. About 5 a.m., police learned the suspect had returned to the apartment on Blake Street in search of his girlfriend.
“He was waiting for her to get back,” Bussiere said. “Instead, the officers showed up and found him hiding in the closet.”
Portillo was originally charged with aggravated assault. Officer Hart Daley, the department’s domestic violence coordinator, began an investigation and consulted with the district attorney’s office about the case.
Later Friday, police and prosecutors chose to upgrade the assault to attempted murder, saying it was clear Portillo meant to kill his girlfriend.
“Based on the physical evidence and the comments he made, it gave us enough to upgrade that charge,” Bussiere said.
Portillo, a laborer according to his booking sheet, was taken to the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn, where he was being held on $25,000 cash bail. Because he was also charged with violating release conditions from an earlier charge, it was unlikely Portillo would be released before a court hearing next week.
At the time of the alleged assault, Portillo was free on bail after he was arrested in May on charges of drunken driving and driving with a suspended license.
Those charges stemmed from a 9 a.m. incident at College and Sabattus streets in which police say Portillo crashed a car into two other vehicles. Investigators said Portillo was drunk at the scene of the wreck.
The victim of the early morning attack was released from the hospital on Friday. Daley was continuing to investigate.
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