Police say a Butler County man became so enraged when his pregnant girlfriend could not find him a cigarette that he choked and beat the woman, causing her to miscarry and ultimately killing the child.

Damien Large, 19, was charged earlier this week with the Christmas Day assault on the woman and the homicide of her unborn child.

Butler Township police said the assault happened at the Super 8 Hotel on Pittsburgh Road. The woman, who was 36 weeks pregnant, was staying on the third floor with her boyfriend, identified in court documents as Large.

The woman told police Large asked her to get him a cigarette, so she left the room and asked several other tenants for a cigarette, according to the criminal complaint. When she returned empty-handed, Large got angry and an argument ensued, followed by Large asking her who she was talking to while she was searching for a cigarette for him.

Large allegedly pushed the woman onto the bed, sat on her legs and choked her until she blacked out, according to the complaint. The woman said that when she came to, Large shouted at her to shut up or he’d kill her, then punched her four times in the stomach, police wrote.

The woman said she immediately knew something was wrong, and she felt no movement from the infant, according to the complaint. She said her water broke and she began to bleed, police wrote, and she called hotel staff who called 911.

Surgeons at Butler Memorial Hospital performed an emergency cesarean section, and the infant was pronounced dead, according to the complaint.

Large is being held in the Butler County Prison without bail. He is charged with homicide of an unborn child, aggravated assault on an unborn child, aggravated assault, strangulation, unlawful restraint, making terroristic threats and reckless endangerment.

A preliminary hearing has not been scheduled.

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