GOLDEN, Colo. – A Jefferson County man who beat his girlfriend so badly she could only communicate with police by blinking was sentenced Monday.
Chuck Frank Martinez, 36, was sentenced to 48 years in prison.
Martinez was arrested in July 2015 and charged with first-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault after a neighbor found Martinez’s girlfriend covered in blood and wandering around an apartment complex in the 3500 block of South Nelson Way in unincorporated Jefferson County.
The woman was so badly injured she couldn’t talk to paramedics or police. The only way she was able to answer questions was by blinking.
Surgery revealed the woman had bone fragments pressed into her skull and the district attorney’s office said multiple traumatic brain injuries left her unable to speak or use her left arm or leg for weeks afterward.
During the sentencing hearing, District Court Judge Lily Oeffler said she had no doubt Martinez left the woman for dead.
“It is a miracle that [she] did not die from her injuries,” District Attorney Pete Weir said.
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