Man gets 6 years for shoving cell phone down girlfriend's throat

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- A man convicted of second-degree domestic assault for shoving a cell phone down his girlfriend's throat was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison.

Marlon Brando Gill, 25, faced a maximum sentence of seven years in prison after a jury convicted him last month of the second-degree assault for the December 2005 incident, but his attorney says he will appeal the conviction.

Gill has been jailed since his arrest more than a year ago and has been tried twice. Gill told jurors in both trials that the victim, Melinda Abell, intentionally put the phone in her own mouth after he asked her whom she had been calling. Prosecutors argued that Gill became angry with Abell.

Jurors in July were unable to reach a verdict during the first trial and considered only the first-degree domestic assault charge.

The lesser charge was added before the second trial.

Doctors said Abell nearly died from the blocked airway before a surgeon was able to remove the phone before performing surgery.

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

Gill already has spent about 400 days in jail since he was arrested.

Gill's attorney was outraged and said the criminal justice system is broken. He said he plans to appeal the conviction on a number of grounds, including mistakes made by the prosecution.

"No American citizen should be subjected to what my client has experienced because of a win-at-all-cost prosecution," attorney David Langston said in a news release after the sentencing.