Vinton horror story: Woman's neck slashed, neighbor arrested
El Paso County sheriff's deputies have arrested a neighbor accused of attacking a young woman who was left bleeding on the ground with her neck slashed outside her home in something like a scene out of a horror movie.
Sheriff's officials on Monday announced the arrest of Rojelio Jose Jacquez Jr., 27, in connection with a vicious knife assault that had gone unsolved until the critically wounded 19-year-old woman recovered enough to identify her alleged attacker.
A Sheriff's Office news release spelled the suspected attacker's first name as "Rogelio," though jail records and court documents have it as "Rojelio."
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Jacquez was allegedly uncooperative and combative when he was taken into custody on Thursday, Oct. 19, at the sheriff's Northwest Patrol Station in Vinton, officials said.
Jacquez faces charges of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and resisting arrest. He is jailed on a total bond of $252,500 at the El Paso County Jail in Downtown after Magistrate Judge Antonio Aun refused to lower the bond amount during a teleconference bond hearing on Saturday, Oct. 21, due to the nature of the case.
The attack completely severed the woman's carotid artery in a crime that, during the hearing, Assistant District Attorney Kevin Marcantel described as nearly a murder.
Young woman attacked outside Vinton home
The attack occurred about 11 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 22, outside a family's home at a trailer park in the 7800 block of Kiely Road in a semi-rural village of Vinton in northwestern El Paso County, according to a complaint affidavit filed by a sheriff's detective and obtained by the El Paso Times.
The young woman, Olivia Marie Matta, had just returned home after hanging out with friends and parked her vehicle in the driveway, the affidavit stated.
The woman's father was inside when he heard his dogs barking. He looked outside to see why the dogs were barking and saw his daughter on the ground, covered in blood. The woman's father and mother rushed outside and immediately called 911, the affidavit stated.
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When deputies arrived, they found the woman face up on the ground, being held by her mother on an unpaved roadway in front of the home. The woman was covered in blood on her shirt, face, upper back and neck, the affidavit stated. The wounds were life threatening.
Paramedics from Life Ambulance arrived and rushed Matta to University Medical Center of El Paso, where she underwent emergency surgery and was hospitalized in critical but stable condition, according to the affidavit.
A surgeon informed detectives with the sheriff's Major Crimes Unit that the woman's carotid artery was completely severed and she received "a massive blood transfusion" to help stabilize her, the complaint document stated. The surgeon told detectives that a large slash to the side of the right side of the neck and wounds to the woman's back were consistent with a stabbing with a knife.
Stab victim identifies alleged attacker
On Oct. 5, nearly two weeks after the attack, a detective conducted a follow-up visit with the woman's parents at UMC. Matta still couldn't talk, but she was beginning to communicate with some verbalization and through writing, documents stated.
The woman had told a nurse with a hand gesture that she had been stabbed in the neck. When asked by her father who had stabbed her, the woman replied, "neighbor" and when her father asked her if it was the neighbor's dad, she wrote on a piece of paper, "kid."
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Detectives identified the "kid" as Jacquez, who, according to court records, has past convictions for assault and making terroristic threats. At the bond hearing, a public defense lawyer mentioned Jacquez is disabled. A jail log describes him as 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighing 330 pounds. The nature of the disability was not disclosed.
On Oct. 10, the young woman was recovering and regaining her ability to speak and was being transferred to a rehabilitation hospital.
On. Oct. 18, detectives conducted a photo lineup where the woman identified Jacquez as the person who attacked her with 98% certainty, the affidavit stated. Jacquez was arrested the following day.
The complaint affidavit does not mention a possible motive in the knife attack.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Woman's neck slashed, El Paso sheriff's deputies arrest neighbor
