Missouri man convicted of shoving cell phone down girlfriend's throat

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) _ A jury convicted a man of second-degree domestic assault on Saturday for shoving a cell phone down his girlfriend's throat. <br/><br/>Prosecutors said Marlon Brando Gill, 25,

Saturday, February 3rd 2007, 5:44 pm

By: News On 6

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) _ A jury convicted a man of second-degree domestic assault on Saturday for shoving a cell phone down his girlfriend's throat.

Prosecutors said Marlon Brando Gill, 25, of Kansas City, forced the cell phone into Melinda Abell's mouth during an argument in December 2005. Gill denied the charge, claiming that she tried to swallow the phone to prevent him from finding out whom she had been calling.

Abell, 25, of Blue Springs, was rushed to a hospital where doctors removed the phone. Doctors said she nearly died of a blocked airway.

``I think he thought I'd been talking to other guys,'' Abell wrote in a statement to police after the incident. ``If I didn't want him to see my phone, I would have just thrown it out the window and busted it.''

It was Gill's second trial since his arrest more than a year ago. Jurors in July were unable to reach a verdict on a first-degree domestic assault charge, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Jurors could not agree on a sentence for Gill, which means that decision will be left up to a judge. The assault charge carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison.