Appeals court upholds 15-year sentence in St. Clair County domestic assault case

ST. CLAIR COUNTY— A St. Clair County man will remain behind bars for a horrific Fourth of July assault on a woman in 2024, a court of appeals judge ruled Thursday, Oct. 8.

A Michigan appellate court Thursday affirmed the conviction and 15-to-30-year prison sentence of a 25-year-old man who repeatedly choked and trapped his girlfriend inside their apartment following the July 4 dispute.

In an 11-page opinion, a three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals rejected arguments from Tiernan Quinn Golembiewski that his constitutional rights were violated when a trial judge refused to instruct jurors on self-defense or allow testimony regarding the victim’s past arrest history.

Golembiewski was convicted in St. Clair County Circuit Court of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, unlawful imprisonment, and domestic violence. Circuit Judge Daniel Damman sentenced him as a fourth-offense habitual offender to 15 to 30 years in state prison for the felony counts and 93 days in jail for domestic violence.

The offense 

The convictions stem from a July 4, 2024, confrontation between Golembiewski and his 19-year-old girlfriend, who was not named in the court document because she was a victim. The couple met on a dating website two months earlier and moved in together shortly after.

According to court filings, an argument at a party previously that day turned physical once the couple returned home.

The victim testified that Golembiewski threw her to the floor, took her phone, and strangled her repeatedly. She locked herself inside a bathroom with a metal curling iron. When Golembiewski forced the door open, she hit him on the head with the curling iron “as many times as (she) could,” the opinion stated. The assault paused only when Golembiewski suffered an asthma attack and needed an inhaler.

The victim testified that Golembiewski later forced her into the bedroom, assaulted her again, and blocked her when she tried to run into the hallway.

Golembiewski offered a different account, testifying that his girlfriend attacked him first over text messages. He told jurors he grabbed her neck “out of impulse” and “accidentally” squeezed her throat while trying to push her away, according to the document. Under cross-examination, he conceded he never mentioned self-defense to police officers when arrested the next day.

On appeal, Golembiewski argued the trial judge erred by blocking testimony about an alleged prior domestic violence arrest involving the victim and an ex-boyfriend. He also argued that his self-defense theory should have gone to the jury.

The appellate panel found that while the trial judge improperly concluded Golembiewski lacked the required intent to warrant a self-defense instruction, the error was harmless given the volume of physical evidence.

Prosecutors introduced more than 50 exhibits, including photographs and testimony from a forensic nurse detailing widespread injuries—bruises to the victim’s neck, throat, ribs, and legs that aligned with strangulation and blunt force.

“Considering the voluminous evidence supporting the charge… and defendant’s lack of any rebuttal evidence other than his own testimony, no reasonable juror would have nonetheless determined that defendant acted in self-defense,” the court document indicated.

The appellate court also upheld a 50-point sentence enhancement for conduct involving torture or excessive brutality. During sentencing, Damman noted that “this was a torturous event that went on for many, many hours,” pointing to evidence that Golembiewski strangled the victim “over and over again,” releasing her neck just enough for her to breathe before choking her again.

Jurors at trial deadlocked on two counts of criminal sexual conduct, and prosecutors later dismissed those charges.