A 35-year-old Dakota man is facing multiple felony charges after an 11-year-old boy told Winona County Sheriff’s deputies the man got angry at him when he stopped sweeping the stairwell.
William Robert Ashley was charged Thursday in Winona County District Court with three felony domestic assault charges — bodily harm, intent to cause bodily harm and strangulation — as well as an additional felony charge for malicious punishment of a child.
According to an interview with the boy as reported in the criminal complaint, Ashley shoved the boy onto a chair and started slapping him in the face. Ashley then grabbed the boy around the neck, according to the report. The boy told deputies he could not really breathe.
Two other children were in the home as well at the time of the assault, the complaint said. One child said she heard what she believed was a slap and said the boy’s face was visibly red after the incident. Another child said she heard “a lot of yelling and screaming,” according to the report.
Ashley denied any altercation, according to the complaint.
