HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — A man on pretrial release in a felony case filed last month was accused of assaulting a man with a flashlight and a baseball bat.
About 5:55 a.m. Friday, the Guam Police Department received information about an assault at a residence in Yigo. While officers were en route, they met with the accuser, who had left the scene and was at a bus stop along Marine Corps Drive.
The man told police he was assaulted by Steven Fernandez Cruz, 35, a magistrate’s complaint stated.
The man said he went to his uncle’s house on Thursday night to celebrate Thanksgiving and remained there until the early morning hours on Friday. Cruz, the man’s friend, arrived around 2:30 a.m. Friday and allegedly accused the man of stealing from him and “being together” with Cruz’s ex-girlfriend.
“(The) defendant became upset and took a black Maglite flashlight and used it to hit the victim on the face. The victim was able to get the flashlight away from the defendant and tossed it away,” the complaint stated, alleging Cruz then swung a baseball bat at the victim.
“(The) defendant then grabbed a blue bat and swung it at the victim, which the victim was able to dodge. The victim tried to grab the bat from the defendant, but was hit in the head from the bat,” the complaint added.
Officers conducted an injury check and noted dry blood on the man’s left eyebrow from a half-inch laceration and a half-inch laceration on his inner right lip.
Around 6:35 a.m., officers found Cruz, who was “crouching down and trying to hide” outside the residence, and took him into custody. Police later found the baseball bat and flashlight and confiscated them.
According to the complaint, while Cruz was in a holding cell at the Dededo Precinct, “he kept yelling, which was alarming to the walk-in clients.”
“(The) defendant told (the officer) that he is ‘going crazy’ because of the meth he had smoked, and he is high,” according to the complaint.
Cruz was charged with two counts of aggravated assault as a third-degree felony, with special allegations of commission of a felony while on felony release.
According to Post files, Cruz was charged in October with aggravated assault and criminal mischief. Cruz was accused of using a machete to damage a man’s car in February and knocking a man’s tooth out in October.
After the October charge, Cruz was committed to the Department of Corrections on $3,000 cash bail. He was released Nov. 3, according to prison records.
With the new case, Cruz was committed to DOC on $5,000 cash bail on Saturday, according to the Office of the Attorney General magistrate summary report.
Steven Frankie Fernandez Cruz
