Estranged Husband, that was I, yes. I'm not terribly sure what that term means, but my wife and I separated on the August before this because she wanted to "find herself", which really meant "see other people". I took my name off the lease of our town house and moved most of my stuff out. At the beginning of October she started seeing me again, leading me to believe that she was going to help me repair our family, but after a bit I kept feeling like she was seeing other people and using me for money.
I drove myself crazy by trying to "win" her over and just convincing myself that letting her cheat on me was what would be best for our kids. After too many nights of worry, I stopped by the apartment early before work and saw her "just a friend"'s car outside and lost my cool. I tried to call her first, knocked on the door, and finally when I shouted into the open bedroom window, somebody slammed it on me and I snapped. I do manual labor and keep all kinds of tools in my car, and a hatchet just happened to be the first thing I grabbed.
There was no alcohol or drugs involved, not on my end of the situation, anyway. Everyone ended up being okay. I didn't hit or intentionally harm my ex, just sort of screamed at her into submission, and then I did physically attack her boyfriend, of who I had another encounter with a few weeks before and warned him about what she was doing. He didn't believe me and at the time I viewed him as standing in the way of me unifying my family. I wasn't the pinnacle of mental health during this period..
Long story short, everyone is fine. My ex had a couple bruises and the police got to me before I could do any real damage on the guy, just a couple punches. My ex's aunt was living there, crashing on the couch, all she really did was scream like an idiot and give a false police report to increase drama to magnificent levels of trash.
My ex is just.. bleh. She is honestly a rotten person. It's hard to have a co-parenting situation because she and I kept seeing each other even after I got out of jail, she promised me all the same loyalty, but I found out and called her out on seeing not just this guy and me, but with like 3 other dudes as well. She has since moved 4 hours away from our town and left our two daughters entirely in my care. She still dates that guy who lives here, and when she comes to see our daughters for two days every month, she has them stay with him. She has also confessed to me that she is still cheating on him while out of town. She's a gem, I'm happy she is gone.
Court was interesting. I had no prior record and am an otherwise upstanding citizen and good father with lots of character witnessess to testify for me. I spent too much money on the best lawyer and did everything I could to let all authorities understand that I know what I did was wrong and that I would do anything in my power to make amends, but couldn't go to jail because my kids rely pretty much entirely on me to get by.
My felony offenses were 1st degree home invasion and two counts of resisting arrest. Misdemeanors were two counts assault, and a few destruction of property. I got the whole thing knocked down to a felony of 3rd degree home invasion and all of the misdemeanor charges. I had to pay about $3000 in damages and court fines, 350 hours of community service in place of jail time, and a whole lot of domestic violence counselling. I am on two years probation with one left to go.
I don't recommend anyone let their emotions get the best of them.