Posted on 06/30/2006 7:48:14 AM PDT by McLynnan
LIMESTONE COUNTY — A Tehuacana woman told police she was beaten, stabbed, raped and left for dead along a rural road Wednesday before she walked and crawled a half-mile for help, authorities said Thursday.
The 18-year-old woman remained in a Temple hospital Thursday, in stable condition after several hours of surgery, authorities said. Officers have arrested two men in connection with the woman’s assault.
Javier Guzman Martinez, 17, and Noel Darwin Hernandez, 22, both of Mexia, were charged Thursday with aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping, Limestone County Sheriff Dennis Wilson said.
Authorities said the pair began following the woman as she was leaving Mexia after spending late Tuesday evening visiting friends. Two men approached the woman and her friends outside a Mexia video store that night and began talking to them, a store employee said.
The men left but later followed the woman as she left the strip mall, said the employee, who didn’t want to be named.
She told investigators she was driving west on State Highway 171 at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday when a car rammed her sport utility vehicle and forced her off the road, Wilson said. Two men forced her into their car about two miles from her home.
They sexually assaulted, beat and stabbed her while driving around rural county roads, Wilson said the woman told investigators.
“She spent more than two hours in hell,” he said. The woman was left in a ditch by the side of Texas Ranch Road 1950 about a mile south of Coolidge, Wilson said. She pretended to be dead until the men left, Wilson said she told investigators.
About 4:30 a.m., Dena Lincoln was awakened by faint knocking on her trailer door. She opened it to find the woman standing there, covered in blood.
“I will never, as long as I live, get that look that was on her face out of my mind,” Lincoln said. “She kept saying, ‘I’m going to die. I’m going to die.’ I told her, ‘No, honey, you are going to be all right. We are going to get you some help.’”
Lincoln and her husband, both Coolidge volunteer firefighters, wrapped the woman in a blanket and treated her for shock. She was flown by helicopter to Scott & White Hospital in Temple, where she was treated for numerous cuts and stab wounds, including an injury that endangered one eye, Wilson said.
Over the next several hours, Limestone County deputies, Texas Rangers, the Department of Public Safety and Mexia police canvassed the area investigating the case, Wilson said. Officers went to several bars and other area businesses with a description of the men provided by the victim. That led to a tip on a suspect by Wednesday afternoon, Wilson said.
Officers found Martinez at his Mexia residence. He confessed to officers about the incident and told them of Hernandez’s involvement, Wilson said. U.S. marshals found and arrested Hernandez at the Waco Transit Center bus station at 301 S. Eighth St. at about 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Hernandez was to be transferred from McLennan County to the Limestone County Jail late Thursday. Both men were due to be arraigned on the charges by this morning, Wilson said. Both men are apparently in the United States illegally and will be held without bond on immigration charges, he said. Hernandez is from Honduras, and Martinez is from Mexico, he said.
Wednesday’s incident resembles a fatal attack on a 24-year-old woman in Falls County in March 2001. John Edward Wilburn shot Ashley Beasley, of Orange Grove, Texas, as she was driving on State Highway 6. Wilburn, of Conroe, forced her car off the road, pulled her from the vehicle and raped her. He was sentenced to two life terms in 2002 after pleading guilty to murder and aggravated sexual assault.
Lincoln said news of Wednesday’s assault has shaken Coolidge residents. She said members of the community are signing a large get-well card, and she plans to deliver it to the hospital along with a potted plant.
“I want to give her something that lives and grows to help her see beyond this,” Lincoln said.
About five miles down the road in Tehuacana, residents also were upset about what had happened to one of their neighbors.
“You can’t print what I have to say about how mad I am,” Tehuacana resident Harold Gates said. “I’ve got granddaughters, and if it happened to them, the case wouldn’t go to court. I tell you what, it would mess my life up doing what I would have to do, but I’d be all right with that.”
In nearby Mexia, word of the assault spread among teachers and students on summer break from Mexia High School.
Mexia Independent School District Superintendent Charlene Simpson said the woman graduated from the school in May.
A friend of the woman’s family, who didn’t want to be identified, said friends and family are feeling emotions, ranging from shock to deep anger.
“It’s by God’s grace that she is alive,” the family friend said. “They left her for dead, but she is a fighter.”
“You can’t print what I have to say about how mad I am,” Tehuacana resident Harold Gates said. “I’ve got granddaughters, and if it happened to them, the case wouldn’t go to court. I tell you what, it would mess my life up doing what I would have to do, but I’d be all right with that.”
My sentiments exactly.
It was crass but it also demonstrates the absurdity of taking this issue and turning it into "They are just doing the jobs that Americans don't want to do".
I regret the crass nature of the remark, but not the point it makes.
Until the message is pounded thoroughly into everyone's head that illegal immigrants are criminals, rapists, thieves, car-jackers, murderers, legitimate job thieves, oh..and yes..a small number of them are field workers... in other words, until our government takes a serious position against all of them, we have a problem that needs to be highlighted.
They are also being held on aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault charges. The immigration charges are in addition to the assault charges. Local radio says bail is set at $1,000,000 for each of them. Guess that was set after the newspaper went to print.
Illegals---No, no....Undocumented Hard Working etc etc etc
At the low Western European rate you might add, though that might crimp your moral superiority attitude.
"Illegals do this every day in America!!"
Sad to say, but so do legals.
Prayers for the young lady.
"So we need more? You twit!!"
More of what? White guys who rape? And are you calling lawdude a "twit"?
In discussing such brutality, surely Freepers should be civil to each other.
deport their asses to an abandoned Hondoran airfield. good practice for our C-130 pilots to do 'touch-and-goes'.
I understand him perfectly.
Bill would require Houston police to enforce immigration laws
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1657982/posts
Dane, are you there?
Yeah, SOME of them are. The rest? Well, you know : )
Say what?
"Illegals do this every day in America!!"
'ahhh, so do white Americans!'
And so do blacks, so what? The point is, we don't need illegals in this country, we have our own criminals. freaking lawyers >sneer<
"And so do blacks, so what? The point is, we don't need illegals in this country, we have our own criminals. freaking lawyers >sneer<"
I agree 100%. I was merely attempting to point out that all races and peoples have their criminals.
BTW, I live in Arizona and have been very outspoken in my wish for a wall and return of illegals to Mexico policy.
As a former (retired) defense attorney, I can take my share of heat but get weary of jerks that attack me without learning facts.
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