MARION COUNTY, Fla. – A Marion County man is headed to prison after a digital trail of evidence, and a child’s intervention sealed his fate in a domestic violence trial this week. State Attorney Bill Gladson’s office announced today that 38-year-old Kevin Thomas McDonough was found guilty of domestic battery by strangulation following a swift one-day jury trial on March 24, 2026.
The case against McDonough unfolded almost by accident. Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputies were on-site responding to an unrelated call for service when the victim seized the opportunity to report the abuse.
According to investigators, the victim informed deputies that a heated argument had turned physical, claiming McDonough had choked them during the confrontation.
The evidence presented to the jury was both graphic and definitive. The victim provided law enforcement with photographs of neck injuries sustained during the assault, but the most damning piece of evidence was a video recording of the battery itself. The footage showed the pair inside a bedroom engaged in a verbal dispute before the situation escalated into violence.
In the video, McDonough is seen lunging over the victim and wrapping both hands around their throat. The victim was pinned down before falling to the floor, where the strangulation continued. The attack only stopped when a minor child ran into the bedroom, screaming at McDonough to get off the victim.
“The outcome of this case was a result of the diligent prosecution efforts of Assistant State Attorneys Lillian Rozsa and James Moody,” the State Attorney’s Office noted in a statement following the verdict.
Following the jury’s decision, a judge sentenced McDonough to five years in the Florida Department of Corrections. The conviction marks the end of a legal process that began when MCSO authorities obtained an arrest warrant and apprehended McDonough shortly after the evidence was reviewed.
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