PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A 31-year-old man is behind bars after he allegedly broke into a woman’s home in Lansdale while she slept and tried to strangle her.
It happened on the 300 block of Vine Street in Lansdale. A woman told police that around 2 a.m. on Sunday, she woke up to a man she did not know kneeling on her legs. He was speaking in Spanish while also saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
She got out of bed and tried to flee the second-floor room, but she said the man pushed against the wall, grabbed her by the throat, and put her in a chokehold.
She told police she was able to hit him in the eye, kick him in the face, and push him down the stairs. She then called 911, but the man got away.
Police said it appeared the suspect entered through a window.
During the investigation, the woman noticed her iPad was missing. The next morning, police were able to track it to Main and Wood streets, in possession of Jonathan Avila-Arevalo, who fit the description given by the woman and had a mark on his face consistent with being hit.
The criminal complaint says with help from a translator, Avila-Arevalo told police he had no memory of the previous night. He is listed as homeless by police, but authorities said he is undocumented, from Guatemala, and entered the U.S. through Texas in 2023.
Avila-Arevalo is being held in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on $99,000 cash bail on charges of burglary, strangulation and aggravated assault. Federal immigration officials have filed a detainer if he makes bail.