St. Joseph Man Pleads Guilty to Domestic Assault, Threats Charges

ST. CLOUD -- A St. Joseph man accused of beating a woman and threatening to kill her and two girls has pleaded guilty. Thirty-six-year-old Jonathan Bayer pleaded guilty to felony charges of making terroristic threats and domestic assault by strangulation. He also pleaded guilty to domestic assault within 10 years of a previously related offense. As part of the plea agreement, six other charges were dismissed.

Stearns County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the home in St. Wendel Township on the evening of January 3rd, 2018. Two children in the home had called 911 and told dispatchers Bayer was beating on the woman and punching her in the face multiple times.

Records show Bayer was confronted by the woman after he urinated in the bed after a night of drinking. They argued and the woman left for work.

Bayer became upset and allegedly began yelling and screaming at the girls and had slapped and punched one of them. The woman sent two of Bayer's friends to the house to remove him and sober him up.

Bayer left and eventually fell asleep, but then took a cab and returned to the home where the girls were. The woman said she arrived home to find Bayer ransacking the house.  Records show Bayer then slammed her head into a refrigerator, began punching the woman in the face and choked her.

At some point during the altercations, the girls say Bayer was fidgeting with a handgun and threatened to shoot them all.  Police later found a handgun in another child's bedroom.

Bayer will be sentenced July 11th.