An Ocklawaha woman was arrested after a nasty domestic spat that was partially captured on cell phone video.
Elizabeth Maria Mendoza, 23, was charged with simple domestic battery after the incident, which happened Thursday while she and the victim were driving on an unnamed forest road near the intersection of SE 193rd Avenue and SE 90th Place.
The victim told a Marion County sheriff’s deputy that he and Mendoza had gotten into a disagreement over normal household issues when she hit him on the side of his head with a plastic bowl and started punching him in the face. He showed the deputy cell phone video of him recording Mendoza while driving, according to the sheriff’s office report.
The video showed the victim calmly talking to Mendoza when she lunged at him and wrestled with him in an attempt to tear the phone from his hands. The video clearly showed Mendoza was the primary aggressor in the incident, the report said.
Mendoza said she punched the victim several times in self defense after he hit her first. She said she got upset, lunged at the victim, stole his cell phone and then threw it back at him. Neither Mendoza nor the victim had any visible injuries, according to the report.
Mendoza is being held in the Marion County Jail on $500 bond. She is due in court Feb. 18 at 8:30 a.m.