San Mateo County: Man accused of beating, attempting to rape girlfriend had prior domestic violence convictions

The district attorney is pushing for the judge to send Jason Matthew Thornton, 40, to state prison, he said.

San Mateo County prosecutors are pushing for a man accused of beating and attempting to rape his girlfriend in the bathroom of a Belmont restaurant to get prison time given previous convictions for domestic violence and sex crimes in the past 20 years.

Jason Matthew Thornton, 40, got into an argument with his girlfriend over money about 6:40 p.m. on June 26 inside a bathroom at a Panda Express restaurant on El Camino Real, according to San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Thornton told his girlfriend he wanted sex with her then and there, but when she declined he went on a vicious attack, choking her, pushing her down and punching her multiple times before forcefully pulling her pants down, according to police. The woman was able to fight him off but Thornton took the woman’s cell phone and walked out to the street, leaving her on the bathroom floor with her pants down bleeding “profusely” from her head.

When police found Thornton in the area, he denied any attack but officers found the victim’s phone in his possession. He was booked into San Mateo County jail and is currently being held on a $200,000 bond.

The victim later was treated at Stanford Hospital for a fractured eye socket and brain bleeding.

During a court hearing on June 30 Thornton pleaded not guilty to charges including felony injury of a spouse or girlfriend, felony assault, assault with intent to commit a felony, second-degree armed robbery and felony possession of a controlled substance. His attorney could not be reached for comment.

Prosecutors are hoping Thornton will be sent to state prison instead of remaining in county jail, as he has had numerous run-ins with the law over domestic violence and sexual abuse accusations.

He currently has a restraining order against him over a 2015 incident in which he was accused of twice violently attacking a different woman he dated. In 2004, Thornton was convicted for two separate beatings reported by his then-girlfriend, yet another woman, and in 2001, when he was 18, he was convicted for sexually assaulting a child under 14 and pressuring her not to report the incident.

He took plea deals for lesser sentences in the two convictions, resulting in separate sentences that each totaled less than a year in jail.

“The question now is, ‘Why shouldn’t he be in state prison?’,” Wagstaffe said in an interview. “Given his prior record, other efforts have been tried. Now our job is to protect (the victim) or any other woman he has a relationship with in the future.”

Seeking a more stringent sentence is the only way to keep Thornton from doing it again, Wagstaffe said, but the most important issue in the whole case is the facts, and Thornton’s “really horrible conduct.”

Wagstaffe said prosecutors will focus on Thornton’s past convictions on similarly cruel incidents toward women and the extreme violence in the latest case, including the allegation that he put his hands around the woman’s neck during the June 26 incident.

“When you get to strangulation of any sort, you’ve jumped to another level of domestic violence,” Wagstaffe said. “It shows an intent that you want to do serious harm.”

A review of court records by the Bay Area News Group revealed a slew of convictions for Thornton since he turned 18, including sex with a minor, identity theft, drug offenses, and violating protective orders.

The accusations in the 2015 incident eerily mirror some of the violent actions he is accused of in the most recent set of charges.

In a statement to police in March 2015, Thornton’s ex-girlfriend said Thornton came into her home unannounced in a dispute over money.

After the couple argued, Thornton “jumped on the side of the bed and bashed my head in with his fist,” she said. The woman sat stunned, not knowing what to do; Thornton then allegedly hit her again.

“I felt like he knocked the life out of me,” she wrote in the statement.

The woman gave Thornton money, but he allegdly hit her again, prompting her to call the police. The incident left her with “an indent” on one side of her forehead, and a bump on the other, she wrote.

About a month later in April 2015, Thornton turned up to the same woman’s apartment looking to get his belongings back after their break-up. The woman asked Thornton to leave, she said, but then he “started to get mad,” threatened her and eventually punched her again, and knocked a phone out of her hands.

A judge granted the woman an emergency seven-day retraining order, which listed Thornton as homeless at the time. That case remains active, court records show.

“Even though we continue to prosecute domestic violence at about the same rate, what we don’t see the majority of the time is repeat offenders,” Wagstaffe said. “But in terms of how we try to move forward now, it’s just too serious. We’re going to go aggressively.”

Court records also show that Thornton faced two counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 in 2001, one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. After being convicted, he was sentenced to 180 days in jail.

While that case was still being adjudicated, Thornton in 2004 was charged with seven misdemeanors in the beating of a former girlfriend, including two counts of battery against a former partner, making terroristic threats, and dissuading the victim from reporting. He was convicted and spent a little over a week in jail and got 18 months probation, which he violated on one occasion for an added 30 days in jail.

Thornton is due back in court on August 17.