Renee Scott said she thought her life was about to end as she struggled but failed to pull away from her boyfriend as he sat atop her and clasped both hands around her throat.

“I thought this was it. I couldn’t even fight. He was too overbearing on me,” Scott testified Tuesday in the first day of the trial of the Youngwood man she claims nearly beat her to death two years ago.

Charles Agger Jr., 53, is charged with aggravated assault, strangulation, burglary and simple assault for two incidents about an hour apart at her Youngwood home.

Prosecutors contend Agger appeared at her door mid afternoon on Nov. 14, 2017. He was drunk and started a fight when he threw her into a table then to the ground and strangled her before was eventually got free. After fleeing, Agger returned through a living room window about an hour later and punched Scott repeatedly in the face, prosecutors said.

Scott, 57, said that at the time of the alleged assaults she had been dating Agger for about six weeks.

She testified she allowed Agger to spend the previous night at her home to watch television while she was in Pittsburgh with another friend. She said shortly after she returned home the next day, Agger appeared at her door with a bottle of whiskey and demanded to know who she hosted there the day before.

“I told him he was here, but then he just came at me, full force,” Scott testified.

Scott said she attempted to fend off Agger’s second attack with a heavy door stop and a knife and could not recall any details before she awoke sometime later on a bathroom floor with her face bloodied and bruised.

Assistant District Attorney Tom Grace in his opening statement to the jury said police believe Agger punched Scott at least 20 times during the second attack.

Medical records indicated Scott suffered multiple facial injuries and lacerations, a concussion and bruises to her back and buttocks, Grace said.

Scott testified her injuries took seven weeks to heal.

“It took one week longer than we were dating,” she told jurors.

Trooper Stephen Dubich of the Pennsylvania State Police testified Agger appeared drunk when he was interrogated several hours later, during which he admitted to striking Scott twice.

“He said he went back to work things out and another altercation occurred,” Dubich told jurors.

Agger is representing himself at trial. He did not make an opening statement, which he deferred until the prosecution rests.

Agger has been in jail since his arrest. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Tim Krieger last month said Agger’s speedy trial rights were violated and ordered him to be released on nominal bond. The judge rescinded that order a day later, before Agger left the jail.

Prosecutors said Agger was convicted in Montgomery County of a sexual crime against a 13-year-old girl in the late 1990s and served a 4 to 10 years in prison. He was still on state probation when police charged him in connection with Scott’s allegations, Grace said.

Agger is expected to present his case when the trial reconvenes on Wednesday.

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