Connecticut man charged with raping, torturing Guatemalan woman he brought to US

Conn. man charged with raping immigrant girlfriend

NORWALK, Conn. — A Connecticut man repeatedly raped his live-in girlfriend, attacked her with a machete and called her his slave after paying for her move to the United States from her native Guatemala, according to an arrest affidavit.

Twenty-four-year-old Edy Augusto Marroquin of Norwalk was charged with first-degree sexual assault Wednesday, as he appeared in Norwalk Superior Court in a separate domestic violence case involving the woman.

The woman told authorities she was raped one to two times per week and tortured during a one-year period after moving to the U.S. in December 2008.

Authorities say in one incident, the woman said Marroquin hit her with a machete and threatened to “cut off her head and feed it to the dogs.”

The woman was treated for her injuries at Norwalk Hospital. Telephone messages were left for police and prosecutors.

Marroquin is being held on $100,000 bail and is due back in court June 9. Messages were left Thursday with his public defender.

The woman told police everything was fine until Christmas Eve when Marroquin pulled her by the hair and struck her on the face, according to the arrest affidavit. She said he threw her to the floor, put his knees on her chest, causing her extreme pain, and told her she was a dog and his slave.

Marroquin then put on a pornographic movie and raped the woman, police said. He allegedly told her to sleep on the floor because she was a dog and that police would not believe her because she was an illegal immigrant.

Marroquin also threatened to kill the woman if she told anyone, the affidavit states.

In February 2009, Marroquin came home drunk, tied the woman’s hands up and stuffed a rag in her mouth, police said. He raped her and put on loud music to drown out her attempts to scream, according to the affidavit.

In December, Marroquin grabbed the woman by her hair and lifted her up from the floor asking where his keys were, police said. When she said she didn’t know, he grabbed the machete and struck her with the flat side of the blade across her back, police said.

The woman said the machete attack was the final straw, and she finally mustered the courage to go to the police.