An East Palo Alto man is facing myriad assault charges for allegedly attacking a friend of his ex-partner with a crowbar while shouting that he wanted to kill him, prosecutors said.
Luis David Martinez Aldana, 31, was charged Monday with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, false imprisonment by violence and felony vandalism, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. Several of the charges have enhancements for use of a deadly weapon and causing great bodily injury.
Martinez Aldana has yet to enter a plea for the charges as the arraignment, originally set for Monday, was continued to allow for the appearance of a court-appointed attorney from the Private Defender Program.
An attorney has yet to be assigned to the case, according to court records.
“The charges are appropriate charges based on the information that we’ve been provided by the victim and the witnesses,” said San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe. “But will those charges evolve? That will depend on what further investigation turns up.”
Prosecutors do not yet know what Martinez Aldana’s motive was for the alleged attack, Wagstaffe added.
The victim had met and befriended a woman known as “Chris” while in Mexico about a month and a half before the incident, prosecutors said.
The relationship between the two, which was non-romantic, continued after they returned home to East Palo Alto, with the pair meeting at a local McDonald’s and talking over social media, prosecutors said. Chris confided in the victim about domestic issues she was having with her ex-partner.
Around 11 p.m. on Nov. 26, the victim drove to Chris’s apartment complex parking lot after she texted him the code to enter, prosecutors said. When he arrived, Martinez Aldana followed him and began hitting his car with a crowbar.
The victim then exited his car to attempt to flee after realizing his car was blocked in and he could not drive away, Wagstaffe said.
That’s when Martinez Aldana struck the victim with the crowbar multiple times whilst shouting that he was going to kill him, prosecutors added. The victim thought that Martinez Aldana was Chris’s ex-partner.
The victim emerged from the assault with a broken arm and head lacerations, prosecutors added. His car also suffered $10,000 in damages.
When police contacted Chris via social media, she denied knowing the victim or going by the name Chris, prosecutors said.
“Why would this guy pick the victim to attack if the woman is not Chris and never had any contact with him? There’s a disconnect there, logically, and what the investigation has to do is try and combine those to find out, okay, what’s the true relationship,” Wagstaffe added. “They’ll be able to do that by looking at phones and going back and doing follow up interviews will perhaps yield additional details.”
Wagstaffe added that prosecutors are still investigating the connection between “Chris” and the defendant, as well as whether Martinez Aldana sent the texts to the victim from her phone.
“We don’t know what occurred on the other side, and that is the interaction between this woman and the defendant,” Wagstaffe said.
Martinez Aldana remains in custody with no bail status. He will next appear in court Dec. 9 for an arraignment and entry of plea.