A Summit Township man was sentenced Thursday, Jan. 9, in Butler County Common Pleas Court to serve 6 to 12 years in state prison on aggravated assault and strangulation charges in a plea agreement that included dismissing attempted murder and rape charges related to a July 2023 incident.

Thomas L. Shuler, 39, was sentenced to consecutively serve 48 to 96 months for the aggravated assault charge and 24 to 48 months for the strangulation charge, and was ordered to have no contact with the woman he was accused of assaulting.

Judge Joseph Kubit handed down the sentence. He said the woman who was assaulted submitted a written impact statement. She attended the sentencing, but did not read the statement aloud or make any comments before the sentence was imposed.

State police arrested Shuler in August 2023 and charged him with attempted murder, felony counts of rape, aggravated assault and strangulation, and misdemeanor counts of terroristic threats and simple assault. The misdemeanor charges also were dismissed in the plea agreement.

Shuler was initially placed in the county prison on $250,000 bail, but his bail was increased to $750,000 at his preliminary hearing in October 2023.

At the hearing, the woman testified that the assault began July 28, 2023, after she, Shuler and a few others had dinner at a home in the township.

After the others left and she was alone with Shuler, she said he threatened to kill her before he slammed her head against a wall and shelves in the kitchen and shoved her into the table.

“He just kept repeating he was going to kill me,” she said.

As the assault continued, she said Shuler kicked her in the ribs several times and put his hands around her neck, and she blacked out.

When she awoke, she said she slipped on her own blood as she ran to the front door. She said she made it to the front yard and yelled for help, but Shuler tackled her, placed her in a headlock and told her to stop yelling.

After going back inside the house, the woman said Shuler asked her to shower so he could see where she was still bleeding. She said he raped her in the shower and in a bedroom.

“I was afraid to say no; it was a do-or-die situation,” she said.

She said she was bleeding from her nose, which was broken and cut.

The woman said the incident began at 8 or 9 p.m. and continued into the early hours of the next morning.

She said she eventually left the home and went to the hospital. She said her left eye was swollen shut, her lips were cut open, and there were bruises on her neck, shins, face, arms, chest, stomach and back. Photographs of the injuries were presented as evidence. She said she did not have a rape test performed at the hospital.