A Mexican citizen who’d been living in Powell has been returned to his home country after he attacked his wife last month.

Park County Attorney’s Office charged Francisco Robles Contreras, 48, with a felony count of strangulation of a household member in the wake of a May 3 altercation with his wife. 

However, the office quickly arranged a plea deal after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) expressed an interest in deporting Contreras.

At a May 15 hearing, prosecutors amended the strangulation charge to a misdemeanor count of domestic battery — to which Contreras pleaded guilty — and dropped a second misdemeanor count of interference with an emergency call. The defendant was then given credit for the 13 days he’d served in jail and his case was closed.

The deal “would, I guess ‘free him up’ doesn’t seem to be the right term, but would free him up for deportation proceedings,” explained Contreras’ court-appointed attorney, Sarah Miles.

Court records indicate that Contreras was in the United States on a work visa. However, Contreras’ wife called Powell police on the morning of May 3. She reported that, while drinking and arguing the previous night, Contreras hit her in the face several times and choked her for five to 10 seconds. The woman then tried calling for help, she told police, but Contreras took her phone and threw it; when she tried to flee, he pushed into the bathroom and blocked the door, according to her account.

Responding Powell Police Officer Nathan Bivens said he observed bruising on the woman’s neck, eyebrow and arm plus cuts on her chin and nose.

The woman’s daughter said Contreras “had a history of domestic violence,” Bivens wrote in the affidavit, with the daughter reporting that Contreras assaulted her mother at least three times while they were living in Mexico.

Contreras left the home after the altercation, but returned later in the day, prompting another 911 call. Contreras declined to speak with the responding officers and was taken into custody.

The man, his wife and her daughter only spoke Spanish, the affidavit says, so Investigator Chris Wallace translated for his fellow officers.

At last month’s sentencing hearing, the circuit court used a remote translator and a service called KUDO to ensure Contreras understood the proceedings.

Given his imminent deportation, Circuit Court Magistrate Brianne Phillips found that Contreras was unable to pay the standard $220 in court costs or $250 to the public defender’s office.

ICE officials picked up Contreras from the Park County Detention Center on May 16 — the day after his sentencing. As of Tuesday, ICE records showed he was being held at a contract detention center in the Denver area.