Sun-News
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Doña Ana County Sheriff’s investigators have formally filed charges against a former Doña Ana County Detention Center inmate and a fellow inmate accomplice, alleging the two stabbed their cellmate with a pen.
On July 3, Joshua Martinez, 21, was temporarily being held at the detention center awaiting arraignment on a separate charge of battery on a peace officer when he and 19-year-old Ernest James Shanks allegedly attacked another inmate with a pen, stabbing him in the face.
After the victim fell to the ground, Martinez and Shanks allegedly began to beat him with closed fists.
Charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and conspiracy against Martinez and Shanks were filed this morning with the Third Judicial District Attorney’s office.
Martinez also faces kidnapping charges following a July 4 incident in which he allegedly took two cellmates hostage in a booking cell.
Martinz has since been transported to Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility west of Las Cruces.
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