KINGWOOD — A Morgantown man has been sentenced to four to 10 years in prison for malicious assault. Gilbert Bruce Bueno, 34, was indicted by the January Preston County Grand Jury on charges of kidnapping, interfering with emergency communication, two counts of strangulation and two counts of domestic battery. Under a June 27 plea agreement, he entered a plea of guilty to malicious assault. The State agreed to drop the other charges.
On July 12, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Savannah Wilkins filed a recidivous. Wilkins cited charges of burglary and aggravated assault in Maricopa County, Arizona, and one count of unlawful assault in Mon County. She asked the court to sentence Bueno to four to 10 years in prison under the recidivous instead of the two to 10 year penalty he would normally serve.
“This involved an extreme act of violence,” Wilkins said about the malicious assault charge. “He put his hands around the victim’s neck and strangled her until she lost bodily functions. She ran to her car and he choked her again.”
Wilkins said Bueno put his arms and legs around the victim so she couldn’t escape.
“He choked her so hard it broke the blood vessels in her ears, and she had petechiae in her eyes.”
Wilkins said the victim’s lips and tongue were still swollen when she reported the incident. She also had bruises around her neck.
“Don’t be fooled by him,” Wilkins said. “He knows you hold his future in his hands. I believe he is extremely violent and will offend again.”
Bueno’s attorney, Sally Collins, told the court her client agreed to the
recidivous.
“When he was released in December, there was an incident and he went in Chestnut Ridge to get help,” she said. “He admitted to the past incidents. We are asking his sentence run concurrent with the sentence in Mon County, or consider other alternatives. He has no residence in either Mon or Preston counties. He can go home to Arizona or to his family in California.”
“I’m very familiar with this case,” Judge Steven Shaffer said. He said Bueno had some “very serious” charges listed in the presentence report.
“First degree murder, kidnapping, two charges of domestic violence. These are very serious charges and you plead guilty to the offense of malicious assault.”
Shaffer said the charges went as far back as 2006 and 2007 in California. He said in 2006, there was a charge of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse.
“I don’t know what that statute is, but I know what corporal means. It means it’s serious,” he said.
Shaffer said there was a similar charge in 2007 in Arizona, and in 2013 there was a charge of aggravated assault. In 2018, there was the charge of strangulation.
“What I see is a trail where there is basically domestic violence charges across the country. I see them in California, Arizona and West Virginia,” Shaffer said. “I don’t believe it is fair to Preston County when someone commits an offense in another state and comes here and goes free. People in Preston County deserve justice.”
Shaffer sentenced Bueno to four to 10 years to run consecutive with the one-to-five-year sentence in Mon county. He gave Bueno credit for time served, charged him court costs, restitution to the victim and ordered a lifetime restraining order.
“Other than hearings, you are not to be within one thousand yards of the victim,” Shaffer said.
