Man jailed on suspicion of punching, dragging, and strangling his wife

"Dispatch advised that the caller stated his female neighbor showed up at his apartment hysterically crying and claiming that her husband hit her, threatened her with a knife, and tried to choke her," reads the officer's affidavit. "Further notes indicated that her husband had since left the residence."

The officer arrived on scene shortly after the call and made contact with the complainant, who only spoke Spanish. The officer obtained assistance from an interpreter via the Language Line service.

The complainant alleged her husband came home from work at about 6 p.m. that day in an angry and "crazy" state, according to the affidavit. The husband reportedly accused her of cheating on him, and they argued. At one point during the argument, the husband allegedly pinched her leg and grabbed her by the hair to force her to look at her phone. The husband then "grabbed a knife and began making stabbing motions with it near [her] neck," the officer wrote.

"He told her that he would kill her if she did not admit to the fact that she was cheating on him," reads the affidavit. "[She] described how strange [his] behavior was because he went from yelling, to crying, to getting in [her] face and threatening her. She attributed this behavior partly to the fact that he was under the influence of drugs. [He] then climbed on top of [her] and began choking her. [She] stated that she tried to push him off, however she was unable to."

The woman reportedly told the officer through the interpreter that she couldn't breathe and thought her husband was trying to kill or seriously hurt her. After what seemed about 1 or 2 minutes of strangling, her husband stopped and said that if he found evidence of infidelity on her phone, he would kill her, according to the affidavit.

It's said that at one point during the incident, the couple's three children, all younger than 10, came into the room and saw their mother being assaulted.

Her husband was looking at the children in a scary way, so his wife stood between them, according to the affidavit.

"She was able to get the children out of the room and then opened a window in hopes that someone would hear her cry for help," reads the affidavit. "In response to this, [her husband] began choking her again and covering her mouth so that she could not breathe. He alleged stated that he did not need a knife to kill her and that he was going to hit her so that she 'did not have a face anymore.'"

At one point, the accused dragged his wife across the floor, became angry about how much noise the children were making, and went into the kitchen to get a bigger knife, according to the affidavit. It's alleged that while he was thus distracted, the woman ran to a neighbor's home and knocked on the door for help. Her husband then fled. The officer obtained a description of the vehicle the husband allegedly used: a red car with a monkey ornament hanging near a window.

The officer reportedly recovered a knife from under a bed and seized it as evidence.

The woman allegedly told the officer it wasn't the first time her husband assaulted her. She was at home one or two days prior when her husband called her on the phone about 11 p.m. to midnight and summoned her outside where he was in his car, according to the affidavit. He drove her to a less populated area, and while he was driving, punched her in the nose, it's alleged. This caused her to bleed a lot, whereupon he's said to have stated, "You are going to die anyway, don't worry about the blood."

"He stated that since there was a gun in the car, the police would shoot both of them," reads the affidavit. "[The complainant] did not immediately call 911 to report this incident for this reason."

The woman reportedly described the gun as being long, big, and black with holes in it. The officer later executed a search warrant and reportedly seized an item of this description, which he described as a paintball gun resembling an AR-style rifle.

The officer arranged to have the woman and children moved to a hotel while authorities searched for her husband. At about 11:43 p.m. that night, officers reportedly found a vehicle matching the woman's description, monkey and all. The woman confirmed the vehicle was her husband's, but the vehicle was not registered to him, according to the affidavit. The car had an expired registration to a different owner — a woman who reportedly told the officer she sold it to a Hispanic man about a year prior. Authorities seized the vehicle and searched it, finding a Montana temporary driver's license belonging to the accused, according to the affidavit.

The husband allegedly turned himself in at the county jail and said he had an argument and suspected his wife was cheating.

"He denied any kind of physical violence occurring between him and [his wife]," reads the affidavit.

The Bozeman Police Department has advised the husband be prosecuted on five felonies: assault with a weapon, strangulation of a partner or family member, and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child. The agency also advised the man face a misdemeanor domestic violence charge.

The man is being held in jail for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to public records. Records immediately available don't disclose an alleged country of origin. A notice to appear in court lists the man's address as being on Idaho Street in Belgrade as of Aug. 13, but it wasn't immediately clear how long he may have lived there or exactly when.