Three Marathon men who were arrested last Wednesday night after a fight with deputies were further charged Monday with aggravated battery.
Deputies responded to reports of a fight on 15thStreet at 11:30 p.m. on November 25th. When they arrived, they found a man – 48 year old Ignacio Echeverria Aguila – lying in the street with severe injuries to his face and head. He was airlifted to the Ryder Trauma Center for treatment of his injuries.
As deputies began to investigate, they followed a blood trail to a nearby trailer. There were two women in front of the trailer. They both said they did not know what happened to the victim. One of the women, 46 year old Tania Espinosa Guevara, got up and began to walk away. At that point, Deputy Matthew Pitcher saw she had blood on both of her forearms. He told her to stop, so he could speak to her. Instead she began to walk away, faster.
Deputy Pitcher followed her and detained her, so he could determine if she had anything to do with the injuries to the victim. He asked Deputy Titus Hodges to go get his patrol car so they could place her in the back seat until they could determine what happened.
There were a number of other people in the area who had already been warned to stay back and to stay away from the incident scene so they would not damage evidence of what happened. The crowd included three men identified as 23 year old Asniel Ferrer Espinosa, the son of the woman who was detained; 27 year old Yacel Maza Hernandez, and 24 year old Yordany Rodriguez Marmol. The three disregarded deputy’s instructions and were walking around in the area which had been clearly delineated with crime scene tape.
Deputy Pitcher continued to hold Guevara, and continued to order the men out of the crime scene. Deputy Titus Hodges arrived and also began to order the men to back up and to get out of the crime scene. As pthe men continued to come closer to the officers, they had to physically push them away. They called for backup officers to respond.
Marmol physically confronted Deputy Pitcher, and took a swing at him with his fist. Deputy Pitcher, who still had Guevara detained with one hand, swung at Marmol with his baton, hitting him in the right leg. Marmol started to run away and was detained by Deputy Hodges. Espinosa kicked Deputy Pitcher twice and Deputy Pitcher used his baton to strike Espinosa. As back up officers arrived, Hernandez also began to act aggressively, refusing to stand back and stay out of the way of the situation.
Deputy Garrett Bragg attempted to detain Hernandez, who struggled with him. Deputy Bragg deployed his Taser to subdue Hernandez until another deputy could assist him with taking him into custody.