One day after the plea agreement and sentencing of Ken Retzer, accused of battery and strangulation of then-Cape Coral mayor Marni Sawicki in June, advocates for victims of domestic violence say the system failed.

“He likely will perpetrate domestic violence against someone else,” CEO of The Shelter for Abused Women and Children Linda Oberhaus said. “She truly believed he was going to kill her and that’s an indicator of… future domestic violence homicide, so this is a pretty serious case.”

Oberhaus said cases like this one prove domestic violence can occur to anyone in any walk of life, but in the end, she doesn’t believe the punishment fit the crime.

“That sends a message to both victims and perpetrators,” she said. “If there were tougher penalties for people who perpetrate domestic violence crimes, I think that it would be more of a deterrent.”

The incident happened in June 2017 in Miami when Retzer accompanied Cape Coral’s then-mayor and her family to a mayoral conference in Dade County.

Video of the encounter, shown to the judge, sheds some light on the violent incident.

Longtime Lee County criminal defense attorney Scot Goldberg said the serious nature of this crime, especially with the video evidence, could have landed Retzer in jail.

“It’s on tape, he’s admitting to it,” Goldberg explained. “To walk away with no time in jail, don’t do that in Lee County, you won’t get the same result.”

Goldberg called the video disturbing, especially as a husband and father.

“What we saw on that video, what we heard on that video, is just a glimpse of what went on in that relationship,” Goldberg said. “If this would have gone in front of any of our county court judges, any of our circuit judges, it’s my belief he’d be going to the Lee County jail for 180 days.”