Jonathan Isaias Avila-Arevalo, of Lansdale, was held on $99,000 cash bail since July 2025
A 31-year-old undocumented immigrant experiencing homelessness, who broke into a Lansdale home last summer, allegedly attacking and choking a woman in her bedroom, getting attacked in retaliation by the victim, and then fleeing with her iPad, pleaded guilty on Thursday to a felony burglary charge and was sentenced to 2 to 4 years in state prison.
Jonathan Isaias Avila-Arevalo, had additional felony charges of strangulation, aggravated assault, burglary and criminal trespassing dismissed at the guilty plea hearing in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.
Common Pleas Judge Todd Eisenberg, who took over the case from Judge Steven T. O'Neill, also dismissed misdemeanor counts of simple assault, theft, receiving stolen property, and recklessly endangering another person, for county court, according to court records.
The defendant is banned from having contact with the victim and from the 300 block of Vine Street in Lansdale.
Avila-Arevalo received credit for 256 days served, per court documents. He was represented by public defender Prince Charles Yakubu.
Officers were called around 2 a.m. on July 27, 2025 to a residence along the 300 block of Vine Street, where a 32-year-old woman reported that she had been asleep in her bed when she awoke to find a man she did not know lying on top of her, former Lansdale Police Chief Mike Trail told NBC10.
When the victim found Avila-Arevalo kneeling on her legs, she jumped out of bed and attempted to go downstairs, per the complaint. However, Avila-Arevalo pushed her back against the bedroom wall, and the victim attempted to move past him toward the stairs again.
Then, Avila-Arevalo allegedly put his hand around her neck, choking her throat. He put her in a chokehold, putting pressure on her throat and cutting off her airway, police allege, while saying, “I’m sorry” over and over.
Police said the victim screamed and fought back, punching and kicking the intruder as he attempted to strangle her. She was eventually able to punch him in the eye and push him down a staircase, where she kicked him in the face again, per the affidavit.
Avila-Arevalo fled the residence, police said. The victim provided a physical description of the suspect to responding officers, describing him as having black shaggy hair under a baseball hat and wearing a green-yellow windbreaker with a patch on the left shoulder, according to the affidavit.
However, the suspect was not immediately located, police said.
Nine hours later, at around 11:12 a.m., Lansdale Police officers found a man matching the suspect’s description around Wood and Madison Streets, police said.
Avila-Arevalo was positively identified by the victim and found to be in possession of the iPad, police said.
He had a fresh injury near his eye, which police said was consistent with the victim’s account of the struggle.
Police confirmed the defendant is unhoused and undocumented, having entered the United States from Guatemala via Texas in 2023.
Court documents listed no details related to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers.
Avila-Arevalo had no prior criminal history and could not afford bail, per NBC10. He was jailed in Montgomery County on $99,000 cash bail.
Lansdale Police confirmed Avila-Arevalo was an undocumented Guatemalan.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
