A Carthage man was ordered bound over for trial after a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin on a charge that he threatened his wife’s life with a screwdriver last August.
Associate Judge Richard Copeland decided that there was probable cause for Anibal Vasquez-Martinez, 42, to stand trial on a felony count of unlawful use of a weapon. The judge set March 22 for his first appearance in a trial division of the court.
The defendant’s estranged wife, Silvia Castanon, testified that Vasquez-Martinez repeatedly threatened to stab her in the stomach with a screwdriver during a dispute at their home in Carthage. Although she could not remember the exact date of the alleged incident, a probable-cause affidavit filed by Carthage police states that it took place the night of Aug. 8.
“He was trying to kill me,” Castanon told the court.
The affidavit alleges that Vasquez-Martinez took the couple’s four children to his car and went back to their house, locking its doors and pushing his wife into a bedroom, where he held her by the shoulder as he swung a screwdriver at her abdomen three times. He stopped short of stabbing her each time, according to the affidavit.
Under cross-examination by the defendant’s attorney, public defender Larry Maples, Castanon acknowledged that her husband never actually stabbed her. He left the house that night with their children and took them to California, she said. Castanon said police came to her house the next day to question her about the incident after one of her sons told a friend what had happened and the friend called police.
Castanon testified that her husband is in the U.S. illegally, but she is a legal resident. Assistant Prosecutor Kimberly Fisher said after the hearing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a hold placed on the defendant.
