Crime & Safety
Bread Knife to the Head
A man told police his girlfriend hit him with an aluminum children's bat and cut him with a bread knife.
A Mount Pleasant woman is facing a felony charge for domestic abuse after a fight with her boyfriend, hitting him with an aluminum bat and cutting him with a knife, according to police.
Monica Oralia Martinez, 23, of Mount Pleasant faces a felony charge of first-degree reckless injury, domestic abuse for which she may be fined up to $100,000 or imprisoned up to 25 years, or both.
The charges follow what police say started as an argument and progressed to a fight early Sunday morning, at a home near the intersection of Chicory and Meachem roads.
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According to the criminal complaint, Martinez didn't believe her boyfriend when he told her he hadn't used cocaine at a party earlier in the evening. He told police Martinez picked up their daughter's pink aluminum bat and swung it at him three or four times, striking him in the left forearm and leaving a mark.
The man went into the bathroom to get away, the complaint states, but Martinez followed him, still swinging the bat. The man told police she struck the toilet tank, breaking it, and then left the bathroom.
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She returned, he told officers, with a 10-inch bread knife and tried to stab him. On the second attempt, he said, she cut him down the left side of his face and then on the top of his head, splitting open a 3- to 4-inch long gash.
He started bleeding, and Martinez called someone to pick her up. The man told police Martinez took his car keys and house key when she left and called his brother to take him to the hospital.
That's where police got involved. Mount Pleasant police officers were sent to Wheaton-Franciscan Health Care-All Saints hospital at 5:02 a.m. Sunday.
According to the complaint, Martinez admitted to having a bat and swinging it but not striking her boyfriend. Initially she denied a knife was introduced into the incident but then told police she may have thrown the knife at him.
Martinez told police her actions were in self-defense against her boyfriend. When officers investigated, a witness reported hearing the couple argue but said that that Martinez never screamed for help, according to the complaint.
Monday, Martinez was in custody with a cash bond set of $500 and a signature bond of $3000. A preliminary hearing was set for Dec. 5.
