Man charged with choking mother starts prison term

EAST PEORIA, Ill. (AP) - A man who pleaded guilty after being accused of choking his mother in front of his 11-year-old son has started a five-year prison term.

Justin Noward pleaded last week. He was charged with aggravated domestic battery by strangling and domestic battery causing bodily harm in a Nov. 8 incident. In a plea deal, the first charge was dismissed.

The Pekin Daily Times reports (http://bit.ly/1QKwmtb ) Noward has accumulated nearly 20 years of prison for six felonies over the past 13 years.

Court documents say the 34-year-old Noward got on top of his mother and started choking her after she entered a bedroom where he was sleeping to retrieve a laptop. Noward's son said he heard his grandmother gasp for air.

A phone listing for Noward couldn't be located on Tuesday.

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Information from: Pekin Daily Times, http://www.pekintimes.com