Quilcene man accused of strangling ex-girlfriend

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Deputies responding to a 911 hang-up call arrested a 27-year-old Quilcene man for allegedly choking his ex-girlfriend during a dispute over their 3-year-old daughter.

Luke Alan McCormick is facing a charge of second-degree assault, with added allegations of strangulation and domestic violence within sight or sound of a minor.

His arraignment on the felony charge was set for Friday, Aug. 12.

Deputies were called to McCormick’s home just before 6 a.m. Sunday, July 31 after 911 dispatchers received a hang-up call, then called back and heard a man say, “there was no emergency,” according to court documents.

McCormick’s ex-girlfriend was at a neighbor’s house. She told deputies they shared custody of their 3-year-old daughter, and she had come from her home in Kingston to stay at her ex-boyfriend’s home to watch their daughter and take care of McCormick’s dogs while he went to a wedding.

She was asleep on the couch with the child when McCormick came home from the wedding intoxicated, “raging” about someone telling him to move his car at the wedding.

She said he tried to rip the child out of her arms while she and her daughter were lying on the couch so the girl could sleep with him, but she said no because he was a heavy sleeper and was intoxicated, and she was afraid he would roll over on her.

An argument ensued, and a tug of war over the child began. After McCormick allegedly went into the bedroom with the child, she said she followed and began recording the incident with her phone.

She also alleged McCormick took her phone away, then kicked her in the face. 

He then got “extra mad,” according to a probable cause report, and grabbed her and pushed her face in a pillow. When she started scratching at him, she said, McCormick allegedly started choking her.

The woman told deputies she kicked him and got away, and called for an Alexa device to call 911. When that didn’t work, she said she ran out of the house and went to the neighbor’s.

She also said that McCormick threatened to call 911 during the incident, and she told him to do it, and authorities learned McCormick did call 911, and he told authorities that he had called, but hung up because he “didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.”

When asked if he had put his hands on her, McCormick allegedly told a deputy he had “pushed her off of him” during the dispute.

He denied taking his ex-girlfriend’s phone away from her, and said it was his phone because he paid the bill.

The woman’s phone was later found on the top shelf of the kitchen pantry, where McCormick had allegedly hidden it.

According to court documents, McCormick had a strong odor of alcohol about him when interviewed by a deputy. A portable breath test was given, and had a reading of .147 blood alcohol content.

McCormick made his preliminary appearance in Jefferson County Superior Court on Aug. 1 via a Zoom link from the county jail.

Prosecutors asked for bail to be set at $20,000. 

Attorney Scott Charlton, representing McCormick, asked for McCormick to be released on his own personal recognizance, and Judge Keith Harper agreed.

Harper also signed an order preventing McCormick from having any contact with his ex-girlfriend. He also ordered the defendant to surrender any weapons in his possession.