A 24-year-old New Haven man accused of brutally beating and stabbing his girlfriend has been arrested and is under police guard while undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, according to New Haven police.
Police responded to Yale-New Haven Hospital around 3:30 p.m. after the woman was brought to the trauma room in the emergency department and nurses told investigators that they did not know the woman’s name, but she’d been brought from a home on Norwood Drive in New Haven, police said.
Minutes after investigators arrived, Josue Martinez arrived at the hospital and told staff he was the victim’s boyfriend, according to police.
At first, he told police that he was alone at his mother’s house when he woke up around 2 p.m. , answered a knock at the front door and saw his girlfriend standing there, barely conscious and badly beaten, police said.
He told them he helped her inside and she told him she'd been jumped while "up the street," police said.
Then, he said, he sat his girlfriend on the floor at the top of the basement staircase, went into another room to call 911, and hung up the phone after hearing a "thump" and finding that his girlfriend tumbled down the staircase to the basement floor, according to police.
She was unconscious and he tried to revive her by slapping her face, he said, according to police.
He told them that EMTs arrived, attended to the woman and brought her to the hospital.
Martinez did not ride with her, but later drove himself to the hospital, police said, and they brought him to police headquarters for an interview.
When investigators questioned the truthfulness of his story, Martinez stopped talking. Police said they took his bloodied cloths as evidence and gave him a Tyvek suit to wear.
Meanwhile, with victim’s family told police about chronic domestic assaults and disputes and said the couple often slept in a car in the driveway rather than inside, police said.
Martinez admitted to investigators that they would sleep in the car and said it was due to his heroin addiction, according to police.
When detectives went to the home and searched Martinez's basement bedroom, they found blood spattered walls and other evidence of a vicious attack, police said.
As they questioned others at the house, they learned that several other people had been home at the time.
One person said she'd heard moaning and others said they'd heard the fighting, but then the noise stopped and they didn't check up on what they'd heard or call police, police said.
Martinez was charged with first-degree domestic assault and police said more charges are possible.
Police impounded Martinez's car as potential evidence.
Martinez was taken to an area hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after trying to harm himself in his cell and remains hospitalized under police guard, police said.
The victim’s medical condition has been upgraded to stable and her injuries are thought to be non-life threatening.
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