BATON ROUGE - Police said they arrested a man accused of punching and choking his live-in girlfriend at his Virginia Street residence Wednesday night.

59-year-old Alvin Franklin was booked into EBR Parish Prison on charges of cruelty to the infirm and domestic abuse battery.

Police responded to the scene just after 7 p.m. after they received a call from a woman stating that her live-in boyfriend of several years had punched and choked her. Officers said they observed a welt on top of the victim’s head and markings along her throat that were consistent with the abuse she described.

The victim’s sister also told police that she had seen Franklin hit his girlfriend with a closed fist, causing the wound on her head. Officers noted that, a month prior, the woman had suffered a stroke and was incapacitated to the point of requiring care from Franklin and her family.