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An Austin man, who was charged with eight felony counts of domestic assault, terroristic threats and weapons violations connected to an assault on a woman he was seeing has been sentenced to probation.

Christopher John Marcks, 32, was sentenced to five years supervised probation on Thursday in Mower County District court on two of those counts — felony domestic assault and felony domestic assault by strangulation.

He was fined $50 each and has to follow a string of conditions. Failure to do so could result in 15 and 18 months in prison respectively.

The six other charges in the case were dismissed.

According to the court complaint, an Austin Police officer took a report from the victim at around 8:43 p.m. on March 9, 2024. The victim told officers that she had returned home at around 10 a.m. that day and had climbed into bed with Marcks to go to sleep.

However, before she could, Marcks started arguing with her about her whereabouts and that after arguing Marcks began hitting her, striking her approximately seven times across the forehead, the right side of her head and the back of her head. The victim then said that Marcks climbed on top of her and pulled out a hunting knife approximately six to eight inches in length, began threatening her with it and then stabbed into the mattress with her laying on it. She also said that he threatened to kill her.

The victim said the cause of Marcks’ anger was that he was upset that she was out all night and accused her of cheating on her. She also told the officer of an alleged assault at around 7 a.m. on March 8, where he again was angry about her being out with friends and that she was cheating on him. She told police that Marcks grabbed her by the throat with both hands, forcing her to fall on the bed and began choking her and threatening to kill her. The victim told the officer she didn’t report that first one because Marcks had again threatened to kill her if she reported the assault.

The officer noted in the report that the victim was emotional during her statements and that he observed and photographed an approximately three to four inch bruise on the right side of her neck. The complaint also noted that the officer went to the residence and observed two puncture holes in the bedding and into the mattress.

In May, Marcks agreed to plead guilty to the counts as part of a plea deal with the state.

According to court documents, Marcks has a history of prior convictions including for terroristic threats in 2017 and violating a domestic abuse no contact order.