The last of three participants arrested for a year-ago machete and baseball bat attack on a man who insulted their gang has been sentenced.
Karina Yamileth Alvarenga Alvarenga, a 29-year-old Charlottesville woman, received a 10-day sentence last month for failure to appear in court, according to Albemarle General District Court records. According to her lawyer, Thomas Wilson, she was suffering from substance use disorder.
Wilson downplayed her role in the beating of a man at his own residence.
"His phone had dropped, and she took it with her," Wilson told the court during a Dec. 12 hearing where Alvarenga was recommended for a jail-free treatment program while both of her co-defendants received jail terms of roughly six months each.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Pollock told the court that although all the participants were culpable she nevertheless agreed to the deal.
Contacted later, Pollock told The Daily Progress that Alvarenga Alvarenga was a victim in another case that contributed to her substance use disorder.
"It was in the interest of justice to allow her the opportunity to engage with treatment to earn a reduced outcome," Pollock said.
The criminal complaint by arresting detective Nathan Weathers alleged that on Sept. 18, 2024, a man named Hugo Rivas was working in the backyard of his dwelling, a trailer in the community of Southwood just outside Charlottesville city limits.
"I saw three men, one with a machete in his hand and the other two had bats in their hands, and a woman was with them," the victim said in a statement translated from Spanish. "They looked like gang members close to the trailer, and I told them, ‘Yes, did you lose something here?’"
At that moment, the victim told the officer, the man with the machete spoke up.
"The one with the machete said, ‘We are here to kill you for saying gang members are thieves,’" according to Rivas.
The victim reported getting hit by the flat edge of the blade. And then another man, this one wearing a red sweater, allegedly began slamming his back and shoulders with a baseball bat.
"I ran, and they followed me along the mountain," the victim told the officer. "I lost them."
Rivas told the officer that he eventually looked back and saw his attackers passing the Boys & Girls Club.
That night, police arrested Alvarenga Alvarenga and one of the men, Jeffrey Banegas Eufragio, now 31.
That left two fugitives, according to the victim’s account, and one of them allegedly came back a week later with more threats. This time the victim’s wife, Emily Martinez, called 911.
"Martinez stated to our dispatcher," Weathers wrote, "that a male had pulled a firearm and aimed it at her and her husband and threatened to kill them."
As officers entered Southwood in search of the perpetrator, a man matching the description fled on foot, according to Weathers. Before long, officers had detained Hector Alberto Adame Puente, now 28, and got the homeowner where he was living to allow a search of the premises.
"We were able to locate a BB gun that looked exactly like a real 9mm handgun," wrote the detective, "sitting on a shelf near where the home owner stated Hector kept his belongings."
Initially, both Eufragio and Adame Puente were charged with armed robbery, attempted malicious wounding, mob assault and grand larceny– with Adame Puente additionally charged with firearm brandishing. In December, Adame Puente pleaded guilty to brandishing, and both men avoided felony trials by giving pleas to a pair of misdemeanor charges, petty larceny and assault and battery. Eufragio got 5 1/2 months of active jail time; Puente Adame got 4 1/2.
Adame Puente has prior convictions for property destruction, reckless firearm handling and four instances of driving without a license.
As for the alleged fourth attacker, the court file is silent on whether he was ever brought to justice.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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