A Seattle man is being held in the Franklin County jail for allegedly ordering an attack of a Pasco man a year ago that caused him to lose vision in his left eye and his sense of smell.
Jorge Alberto Quintanilla, 50, was arrested on a warrant and booked into the Franklin County jail Tuesday. Bail is set at $100,000.
He is charged with first-degree assault and is expected back in Franklin County Superior Court on Tuesday.
According to court documents, Quintanilla is accused of getting Enrique Salas-Rubio to meet him at a shop in Pasco on July 29, 2010, then ordering two men there to attack him.
Pasco police received a call around 3:30 p.m. that day about a man who reportedly had been hit in the face with a baseball bat and found Salas-Rubio semi-conscious on the ground at 205 S. Fourth Ave.
Salas-Rubio was flown to a Seattle hospital. When he returned home a few days later, officers were able to talk with him.
Salas-Rubio told investigators that two men assaulted him at the direction of Quintanilla, documents said.
Quintanilla reportedly called Salas-Rubio and asked him to go to the shop to get an electric saw. When Salas-Rubio showed up, Quintanilla was there with two men, who were said to be Quintanilla's truck drivers, documents said.
Instead of getting a saw, Quintanilla allegedly demanded money from the victim. When Salas-Rubio said he didn't have the money because he had to pay his vendors first, the two men got angry and one asked, "Who the hell is going to pay me my money?" documents said.
Salas-Rubio said he was looking at Quintanilla when he told them there was no money, and he saw Quintanilla nod at the men, as if telling them to go ahead, documents said.
The men reportedly attacked him, but he said he was able to get away and went in another room, pretending he was getting a weapon.
A few minutes after the men left the building, Salas-Rubio tried to leave but he said he was confronted by one man coming at him with a pallet, documents said.
Quintanilla reportedly blocked him when he tried to run back inside, and he was struck with the pallet and knocked to the ground.
Salas-Rubio said the second man hit him in the head with a 2-by-4 and the first man hit him repeatedly with a tire iron.
He said he was bleeding badly and losing consciousness and pleaded with Quintanilla to call an ambulance and not to kill him, documents said.
Salas-Rubio said Quintanilla gave the men keys and told them to leave, then threw the crowbar and 2-by-4 to the side of the building.
Quintanilla apparently then called 911 and asked for an ambulance, but Salas-Rubio said he heard Quintanilla give dispatchers the wrong description of the suspects and vehicle, documents said.
Salas-Rubio suffered broken bones in his face and lost the sight in his left eye and his sense of smell.
