Jury deliberations begin in Thermal double stabbing trial
A man who stabbed two men at a Thermal home — one fatally — indicated through text messages that he went to the residence to assault his ex-girlfriend, a prosecutor said Thursday, but the defendant’s attorney said his client he went there to find his young daughter and stabbed
the men in self- defense.
Abel Arellano Jr., 25, is accused of stabbing Josue Aguilar and another man at a home in Thermal, after he allegedly broke into the residence to look for his ex-girlfriend. In addition to murder, Arellano faces felony charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and
domestic violence.
Prosecutors said that after a series of arguments between him and his estranged girlfriend, Arellano showed up at about 4 a.m. April 16, 2016 at the home on Middleton Street and began honking his horn, asking, “Where’s my girl?”
Arellano told deputies he was at the home to look for his 4-year-old daughter, whose custody he shared with the ex-girlfriend.
When no one in the home responded, Arellano pounded on the front door, then kicked the door in and slapped his ex-girlfriend, leading to a fight between him, Aguilar, another man and another woman, prosecutors said. In the ensuing scuffle, Arellano allegedly stabbed Aguilar and the other man multiple times with a metal folding knife. Aguilar died at John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio just before 5:30 a.m.
Deputy District Attorney Anthony Orlando told jurors in his closing argument that text messages exchanged that night between Arellano and his ex- girlfriend showed he went to the home with the intent of assaulting the woman.
“I will beat the (expletive) out of you, I promise I will,” Orlando said, quoting one of the texts exchanged on the night of April 15 into the morning of April 16.
“He wasn’t there to reconcile a relationship,” Orlando said. “He wasn’t there to get back his kid.”
Defense attorney John Dolan said Arellano went to the home to find his daughter after his ex refused to tell him where the girl was.
Dolan contended Arellano was concerned that someone might be harming his daughter or ex-girlfriend inside the home after hearing low voices through the door, prompting him to kick the door down.
Arellano had never met Aguilar or the other victim and could not have known that they were acquaintances of his ex-girlfriend, and not her potential attackers, according to Dolan.
Framing the night as a desperate search for his daughter, Dolan said Arellano’s forceful entry into the home may have seemed hasty without context.
“Most people who are parents might jump to the conclusion that there’s something wrong going on there,” Dolan said, citing the lack of response to Arellano’s texts, honking of his truck’s horn and knocks on the front door.
After hitting his ex-girlfriend, the home’s three other occupants began punching and assaulting Arellano with a baseball bat, forcing him to curl up on the ground, according to Dolan, who also said someone in the house mentioned getting a gun.
“What would you have him do?” Dolan asked the jury. “Should he just let them beat him with a bat until he’s unconscious? Is that his only alternative?”
Orlando contended that Arellano already had the knife out when the fight began and the home’s occupants had a right to defend his ex-girlfriend after she was struck.
“He can’t start something and then claim self-defense,” Orlando said.
Arellano fled and was identified as a person of interest by sheriff’s deputies, with his photograph circulated to the public. He surrendered at the sheriff’s Thermal station at about 9:30 p.m. that night.
Following the stabbing, Arellano went to a neighbor’s home to try to get help and was chased by one of the victims, who was wielding a bat, Dolan said, then turned himself in after later learning that Aguilar died.
Dolan said he was cooperative with investigators, pointing them to the location of the knife and his bloody clothes.
“He did what you would expect an innocent person to do,” Dolan said.
The jury began deliberating Thursday afternoon and is due back Monday morning.
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