(San Marcos, TX) -- The Austin American Statesman reports that a Seguin man is heading to prison on a life sentence, convicted by a Hays County jury last week on charges of aggravated assault stemming from an incident last year in which he beat a woman with a belt and cut her multiple times with a box cutter.

According to prosecutors, the incident happened in May of 2013 near a Wal-Mart in San Marcos where 30-year-old Zane Lynn Barton allegedly hit the woman on the head with a belt buckle and rocks, and used a box cutter to cut X’s into the woman’s face and hands and to slit her throat. The victim survived the attack and convinced Barton to allow her to seek medical attention after promising she would tell police a stranger had committed the assault. The victim turned Barton in after she was returned safely to her family.

Barton currently remains in custody at the Hays County Jail and is awaiting transfer into the state prison system.