25-year-old facing 7 charges

DIXON – A Steward man who police say twice broke into his ex-girlfriend’s house, once beating her up, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of home invasion, the most serious of the seven charges he faces.

Jacob John Gomez, 25, also is charged in the first case with domestic battery with a prior offense; violation of an order of protection; and misdemeanor interfering with reporting domestic violence; and burglary; criminal damage to property; and misdemeanor criminal trespass to a residence in the second case.

Gomez broke into the 23-year-old woman’s house in Steward around 2 p.m. Jan. 1 and punched her multiple times, State Police Lt. John Biffany said.

About 1:30 p.m. March 17, he went back to the house and started “tearing things up,” breaking a computer and punching a hole in a wall, Lee County Sheriff John Varga said.

The woman was there but was not hurt, Varga said.

Gomez was arrested May 7 and still was in Lee County Jail Tuesday on $215,000 bond.