Pasco man charged with smashing rock into friend’s face

A Pasco man is accused of attacking his friend by smashing a rock into the face of the older man.

Miguel Adams-Cruz, 33, faces a March 2 trial in Franklin County Superior Court for second-degree assault. He has pleaded innocent.

Guillermo Martinez-Hernandez, 43, was found bleeding from his face near Fiesta Foods along West Lewis Street, court documents said.

He was taken to Lourdes Medical Center in Pasco to be treated for a severe cut. He suffered a fracture around his left eye and had to get at least six stitches.

In the meantime, another officer found a man at a downtown Pasco tavern who matched the suspect’s description. The man didn’t have the same name as the suspect, but he was arrested on an outstanding warrant.

Officer Nathan Carlisle then went to the hospital to interview Martinez-Hernandez, who said friend he knew as Luis Garcia and another man had started hitting him and throwing rocks at him, documents said. He claimed that Garcia told Martinez-Hernandez that he was going to kill him.

Martinez-Hernandez said he did his best to fight them off, including when Garcia grabbed a rock and hit him in the face, court documents said. The suspects eventually stopped and left on foot down Lewis Street.

Martinez-Hernandez told Carlisle that he would recognize Garcia in a picture because he had known the man for five years.

The officer later returned with a photograph of Adams-Cruz to make sure they weren’t the same person. When shown the picture of Adams-Cruz, the victim said it was his friend Garcia, documents said.

After hearing his friend had used a different name, Martinez-Hernandez said that he had heard the man’s wife call him Miguel once, but he thought it was a nickname, court documents said.

Carlisle then went to the Franklin County jail to question Adams-Cruz. The suspect denied doing anything, claiming he had spent most of the day at the tavern drinking water.

The officer said the victim had given a specific description of his attacker’s attire, including boots. At that point, Adams-Cruz said he was wearing tennis shoes, but a check of the clothes he had worn when he was arrested turned up a pair of boots, documents said.

Adams-Cruz is being held on $20,000 bail for the alleged assault.

This story was originally published January 17, 2016 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Pasco man charged with smashing rock into friend’s face."