A rural Austin man who authorities said repeatedly struck a woman last March changed his plea to guilty Monday and was convicted.

Nicolas Gomez, 24, pleaded guilty to one count domestic assault with substantial bodily harm, a felony. In exchange, one count of third-degree felony assault was dropped. He was released from jail on Monday but is pending an Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation. If he stays in the U.S., he is sentenced to one year of supervised probation.

Mower County Sheriff’s deputies dispatched the night of March 3 to 581st Avenue just east of Austin to a report of domestic assault. Upon arrival, officers found a woman with a large gash on her head, rips in her shirt and blood covering her hands. The victim said Gomez left earlier in the day, returned that night and appeared to be drunk, according to the court complaint. The victim told authorities that Gomez grabbed her hair, punched her, pushed her to the ground and continuously beat her. She also said Gomez hit her nearly 20 times, and at one point her head hit a door, which may have caused the gash, the complaint says.

An officer waited for Gomez outside the home he was suspected to be in when a man wielding a 2-and-a-half-foot metal rod with triangular spikes came out. The officer ordered the man, Gomez, to drop the weapon several times before Gomez complied, according to the complaint. It also states the officer ordered Gomez to lie on the ground several times before he listened. Two young children were reportedly also in the home.

According to the complaint, officers arrested Gomez and took him to the Mower County jail, during which he voluntarily told officers, “I went to a class for battery; I don’t agree with them. They deserve to get hit.”

The complaint also says Gomez told authorities he is a “true gangster,” and that, “When girls mouth off, they deserve to get smacked.”

Gomez was then given a blood-alcohol test and registered a .27. Gomez’s record also shows he was convicted of domestic assault in Marshall County, Iowa.