Stabbing victim tells of terror in Double Head Cabbage

It is rare in Belize — or most other places for that matter — that one person will make a totally unprovoked deadly attack on another. But according to Martin Martinez, a B.E.L. employee who lives in the village of Double Head Cabbage, that’s exactly what happened to him and his wife as they slumbered in what they thought was the safety of their home. News Five’s Jacqueline Woods and Stewart Krohn combined to file the following report.

The drama unfolded around two early Thursday morning. Martin Martinez and his wife Paulette were soundly asleep in their bedroom. When Martin woke up it was from sharp pains he felt piercing different parts of his body, but this was no dream, Martinez was being stabbed over and over again by an intruder, with a knife taken from his own kitchen.

Martin Martinez, Stabbing Victim

“Well when he mi di stab me, I start to get up and he continue to stab me. Well I try to fight back, you know, but by that time, this wrist was already cut and blood was spraying like crazy and I try to get out of the house.”

Badly bleeding from sixteen stab wounds, Martinez stumbled out of the house and tried to get help from his mother-in-law, who lived a hundred yards away.

Martin Martinez

“I gone there and I knock on the door and so they came out. You know, the man mi left.”

But not before threatening to kill and stabbing Martinez’s wife in the right foot. But the man that broke into the Martinez’s home was not your run of the mill burglar. He is twenty five year old Peter Augustine an escaped prisoner on the run. According to Wayne Moody, The Public Relations Officer for the Department of Corrections, Augustine, who was serving a five year jail term for attempted burglary, was two weeks ago transported to Yalbac Farm to participate in the prison’s new agricultural project. But this past Wednesday evening, while the prisoner was in the field harvesting oranges, he made a run for it, winding up in the village of Double Head Cabbage. The house he wound up at was not totally unknown.

Martin Martinez

“Well um, the man is my cousin, the my family, but the last time I saw him was long time ago. From when I di a little boy, I saw him. So I no really know how he look right now. I no really remember him but he is my aunt son.”

According to Martinez he had no connection with Augustine and could think of no reason why he would be singled out for attack. That explanation will wait for the judge as Augustine was apprehended Thursday afternoon in Burrell Boom. He is now being held in the Queen Street lockup pending charges. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.

Martinez told News Five that before entering his house he understands that Augustine had attempted to break into several other homes in the village. This afternoon Augustine was brought to Magistrate’s Court in Belize City and charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of using deadly means of harm and one count each of aggravated burglary and dangerous harm.