SALINAS — 43-year-old Clyde Whitfield has been sentenced in Monterey County for a domestic violence incident that took place on November 30, 2013 in which he beat and strangled his girlfriend for her alleged infidelity. He has been sentenced to 20 years and 4 months in state prison.
On that day, Whitfield confronted his girlfriend with accusations that she was cheating on him. He is said to have repeatedly hit her in the head and strangled her until she revealed the name of her other partner.
After she allegedly confessed, Whitfield told her she couldn’t leave or he would put her in the trunk of her car, drive the car to a field, and set it on fire.
To try and get more information out of her, Whitfield smothered her with a pillow and strangled her two more times over a 3-hour period. When she reached for her phone, he told her that if she called police she would be dead before they got through the door.
It was only while Whitfield was in the bathroom that she was finally able to make a break for it and escape the CSUMB housing area, running toward Imjin Parkway. She flagged down three other college students, who drove her to safety and called CSUMB police.
Whitfield called police as well and claimed he’d been assaulted by his girlfriend. He fled the area in her car and was located at the Monterey Peninsula College parking lot. His victim was taken to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and diagnosed with a perforated eardrum, as well as suffering from noticeable bruises to her arms, chest, and eyes.
Whitfield was convicted on a previous domestic violence incident in 2007, in which had threatened a family member with a knife.
