Riverhead man convicted of abusing girlfriend

A Riverhead man was convicted Thursday of all charges in an 11-count indictment in what prosecutors called repeated physical and emotional abuse of his girlfriend.

Travis James, 32, was accused of choking and briefly smothering his girlfriend during an August 2012 altercation.

Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota called James a "serial abuser" who should be sentenced to state prison.

"Our evidence presented at this bench trial also included proof the defendant repeatedly made harassing phone calls to the victim" in violation of an order of protection the court had issued against him, said Spota in a news release. The district attorney said James also sent an emissary to tell his girlfriend not to come to court.

Prosecutors said during a fight at their shared home on Fanning Boulevard on Aug. 4, 2012, James put both of his hands around his girlfriend's neck and threw her onto the bed. As he pinned her, James held a throw pillow over the woman's face, "obstructing her breathing for several seconds," a news release said.

James was convicted of two counts of aggravated criminal contempt, criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation, first- and second-degree criminal contempt, and second-degree harassment, district attorney spokesman Robert Clifford said.

Spota said because James also had a prior conviction of two counts of first-degree criminal contempt in March 2010 for violating the order of protection, he will be considered a prior felony offender at his Dec. 23 sentencing.

Clifford said if James gets the maximum penalty on each of the felonies and all of the sentences run consecutively, he could get 91/2 to 19 years. Of the 11 charges he was convicted of, five are felonies.

James is being held in lieu of $250,000 cash bail in the Suffolk County Jail.