Taylor Raymond Laducer, 24, was sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prison, with all time suspended but the 36 days he has already served in the Ward County Jail, and three years of supervised probation for strangling a woman during a domestic violence altercation on Feb. 6, 2019 at a Minot residence.

Laducer had been scheduled to go to trial on Tuesday on the Class C felony aggravated assault – domestic violence charge. Court records show that he entered an Alford plea, meaning that he maintains his innocence but recognizes he could have been found guilty at trial.

Judge Todd Cresap also ordered Laducer to participate in the 24/7 Sobriety Program, to pay $525 in court costs, and to have no contact with the victim. Restitution in the case is reserved for 90 days.

According to court documents, Minot police received a call at 2:05 a.m. on Feb. 6, 2019 that a man and a woman had been assaulted by an unknown assailant. The officer didn’t see any footprints leading to the apartment and the door was secured by a keypad. The officer also did not see any signs of a struggle or blood in the hallway outside the apartment.

The officer knocked on the door and Laducer answered. He was wearing only sweatpants with blood stains on them and didn’t have on a shirt. He had blood on his upper body and his forearm was bleeding. The apartment was in disarray, with trash, broken glass, furniture, other objects and blood on the kitchen and living room floor. The victim was in the kitchen. Her shirt was torn and her face, chest, hands, and legs were smeared with blood. There was a broken switch plate in the hallway and blood on the walls. In the bedroom there were empty alcohol and liquor bottles.

Laducer told police an unknown person wearing a mask broke in and assaulted them.

Police called an ambulance.

The victim told police that she and Laducer had been drinking and they had gotten into an argument. She said Laducer threw her around and strangled her with one hand and then later strangled her with both hands while she was lying on the kitchen floor. She told police Laducer told her to “tell them that somebody broke in.”

Laducer has a prior conviction for assaulting his roommate in a dispute over unpaid rent on May 18, 2018. The man told police that Laducer and a woman drove him out into the country, where Laducer hit him in the head with a small metal softball bat and struck him in the ribs with brass knuckles. Laducer and the woman then left him by the side of the road. Laducer had originally been charged with kidnapping and robbery, both Class B felonies, and Class C felony aggravated assault for that offense but pleaded guilty to Class A misdemeanor unlawful imprisonment and Class A misdemeanor assault. The robbery charge was dismissed. He was sentenced in August 2018 to 360 days in jail on both charges, all suspended but the 91 days he already served, and 18 months supervised probation. The sentences were concurrent. The state then revoked his probation on the charges in June 2019 and he was ordered to serve 30 days in jail and spend an additional 8 months, five days on probation. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $4,448.06 plus court costs.

The woman was allowed to enter a pre-trial diversion arrangement on a misdemeanor unlawful imprisonment charge in January 2019. The charge against her was ultimately dismissed.

Laducer also burglarized the Dakota Square Taco John’s in Minot, where he had formerly been employed, in May 2017. He had been given a deferred imposition of sentence for two years on that Class C felony charge, but Judge Cresap revoked his sentence in December 2019.

Laducer now lives in Williston.