AUGUSTA, Maine — A Massachusetts man was sentenced to serve 18 years in prison after he was convicted of trying to kill the mother of his two children in June of last year and assaulting a police officer.
Irineu Goncalves, 35, of Revere, Massachusetts, was convicted in May of attempted murder and other charges stemming from the attack that happened in the parking lot of a Waterville hotel.
Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy issued the sentence Wednesday at the Capital Judicial Center.
Nicole Bernhardt told the court she remembered every single moment of fighting for her life on a hot day in June of 2023, gasping for air as she said her ex-boyfriend tried to rip out her throat.
Bernhardt has two young children with Irineu Goncalves, but it's a relationship she said was one she was trying to leave for good.
Bernhardt said she was leaving soccer practice that day in 2023 when she gave the defendant a ride back to a Holiday Inn Express in Waterville, where he often stayed while visiting from Massachusetts.
She said a text from a male friend sent Goncalves into a rage.
"He said, 'I am going to kill you this time, I am going to kill you now,'" Bernhardt recalled.
Bernhardt told NEWS CENTER Maine that Goncalves had started to choke her while she was in the driver's seat.
"He tried to crush my throat and rip it out. I was struggling to breathe. I was swallowing so much blood," Bernhardt said, fighting back tears.
She also said Goncalves tried to break her neck and hit her in the face, and even choked her on the ground in the hotel parking lot until she lost consciousness.
Goncalves was also charged with assaulting a Waterville police officer, Jake Whitley, who responded to the call, including biting and going for the officer's gun.
Goncalves pleaded guilty to an aggravated assault charge and violating conditions of release, stemming from the incident. In May he was convicted in a bench trial of attempted murder, domestic violence criminal threatening, and assault on an officer.
Defense expert Dr. Peter Donnelly, a clinical psychologist, testified during the trial that Goncalves had entered into a dissociative mental state because he thought Bernhardt was trying to run over him in the parking lot.
Then on Wednesday, Bernhardt finally faced the faced the man who was on trial for allegedly trying to kill her. She read from a victim impact statement during the sentencing proceedings.
The defendant's family members also spoke, telling the judge that Goncalves, a father of four, was not violent and was devoted to his children.
But the judge said the strong evidence, the testimony of witnesses who intervened to try to save Bernhardt, as well as the traumatic and physical toll on the victim carried a lot of weight in her decision to hand down a sentence of 30 years with all but 18 years suspended.
"No matter how you look at it, Mr. Goncalves is a very dangerous person," Murphy stated.
Bernhardt, who still suffers from vertigo, migraines, and PTSD from the attack, said she was relieved Goncalves would be behind bars for most of their kids' childhood.
"I want my children to have a childhood," she said. "I don't want them to grow up in fear."
When Goncalves is released from prison, he will have to serve six years of probation and will be required to follow several conditions when he's in the community, including no contact with Bernhardt and their two children.
Goncalves was also ordered to submit to drug testing, not to possess any dangerous weapons, and to attend a batterers intervention program.