A cook at Margarita Republic was arrested at the Spanish Springs Town Square restaurant after an alleged attack on his girlfriend.
Craig Alan McDonald, 43, who resides at 321 Chula Vista Ave. in The Villages, was taken into custody at about 6:30 p.m. Monday on a felony charge of battery by strangulation. He was arrested after showing up for work at the restaurant.
His live-in girlfriend called police after McDonald put his hands around her neck and squeezed until she could not breathe, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. He also spit on her and threw water in her face, the report said. He left for work and she called police. The woman, who has been living with McDonald since May, “had visible bruising/scratches around her throat area consistent with someone being strangled,” the arresting officer wrote in the report.
When McDonald was questioned at the restaurant, he claimed they had been arguing and he pushed her “because she was attacking him.”
McDonald was taken into custody and booked at the Lake County Jail on $5,000 bond.
McDonald, who has a history of arrests, was living with his mother last year in the Village of Antrim Dells, when he was arrested with a different woman in The Villages.