SUPERIOR Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho on Friday granted the request of Andrew Cabrera Duenas, 36, to be released to his twin brother as third-party custodian after submitting a $2,500 unsecured bond.
Duenas, represented by Assistant Public Defender Karie Comstock, was charged with aggravated assault and battery, assault and battery, and disturbing the peace.
Assistant Attorney General Steve Kessel appeared for the government.
Duenas was accused of beating up his girlfriend in the early morning of March 31, 2022.
The victim told the police that she got up that evening to get a sweater because she was getting cold. She said her boyfriend, Duenas, woke up and told her she did not have respect and that she was always getting mad at him. He then started calling her names, and kicked her off the bed with both his feet, she said.
When she fell to the ground, she hit the boxed fan and was lying face-down on a laundry basket when Duenas picked her up, carried her, and then slammed her on the bed, she said.
Duenas punched her back with his right hand, and as she tried to get up, get struck her on the face with his left hand which caused her to see “white,” she said.
Duenas then punched her again on the right eye, she added.
She said she wasn’t sure what hand he used because she was still trying to collect herself from the first punch.
She said she tried to calm him down when he tried to punch her again, but she grabbed his hand. When Duenas pulled away she told him, “Stop it. You hurt me bad.”
She quoted Duenas as saying, “You deserved it. You just make me so mad. You just drive me to the point of just hitting you.”
She said Duenas then took his phone and flashed her face. “Holy cow,” he told her, “you got a shiner! How did you get that? I didn’t hit your face.”
The victim whose nose was starting to bleed said she tried to get out of the bed. Duenas asked her where she was going. She told him she was going to wash her face and when she returned to their bed, Duenas repeatedly apologized and told her, “Sorry, I did not mean to. It’s just your mouth.”
She replied, “But you did not hit me once you hit me five times.”
Duenas then told her, “Because of your mouth. Why are you such a b***h?”
She said Duenas then punched her chest twice, then punched her in the upper stomach causing her more pain, so she held her stomach and crouched over.
She said she stayed quiet and laid down because she was in so much pain.
When she heard a knock on their door, she tried to get up, but Duenas prevented her from moving.
She fell asleep, but woke up an hour later because she could not take the pain. She checked on her kids then went to the store where she called 911.
Duenas denied hitting his girlfriend. He told police, “Yeah, I kicked her, but I didn’t punch her.”
According to police, the victim had a swollen right eye, “red and purple in color.” The victim’s eye was swollen and she couldn’t open it, police added.
She also had “a red circle, colored shapes around the upper bridge area of her nose and between her eyes, and complained of pain on her left rib area,” police said.
