KINGSTON – A Kingston man has been convicted by an Ulster County Court jury of criminal contempt in the first degree for violating an order of protection by threatening his ex-girlfriend.

Jason Dixon was arrested on May 29, 2011 for a domestic violence altercation for strangling his girlfriend with a phone cord, hitting her in the face with a glass vase, punching her in the stomach, and spitting on her.

He was arraigned in Kingston City Court on assault and obstruction of breathing charges and was released after an order of protection was issued. That forbade him from having any contact with the woman, but District Attorney Holley Carnright said he immediately returned to the victim’s residence telling her, “I came back to finish you off.”

Carnright said this was the first strangulation felony case tried in Ulster County. While the prosecution presented evidence to the jury including photographs of the abuse as well as hospital records, the defense argued the injuries were self-inflected. The jury did not convict Dixon on the assault or strangulation charges.

Dixon has three prior felony convictions, including two previous convictions for criminal contempt in the first degree in Columbia County from 2001 and 2002. The 2002 conviction involved his strangling a former girlfriend in violation of an order of protection.