Woman pleads guilty in Halloween assault

Published 7:45 am Friday, December 17, 2010

An Austin woman accused of fracturing another woman’s nose by punching her in the face after a Halloween party entered into a plea agreement Thursday in Mower County Court.

Melissa Jo Marks, 28, pleaded guilty to felony third-degree assault in exchange for the dismissal of a misdemeanor domestic assault charge.

Court documents report that Marks was at a house with some friends after a Halloween celebration when she and another woman got into an argument and Marks allegedly started attacking her.

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Witnesses said Marks was on top of the woman punching and scratching her in the face. One of the friends said Marks was the “aggressive one,” while the other woman was trying to “defend herself.”

When officers arrived at the residence, Marks told them “everything was being blown out of proportion” and that the other woman had pulled her hair. The officers observed that Marks’ hair was in disarray, but she was uninjured.

The other woman was taken to Austin Medical Center. She suffered a fractured nose.

Marks will be sentenced on March 24.