Police in rural Virginia have arrested a suspect after a woman returned home and found a fatally injured man, whom she did not know, bleeding on her sofa.
Jose Velasquez-Martinez, 27, was charged with murder after the homeowner in Fauquier County, about 48 miles from Washington, D.C., arrived at her residence on March 27 around 9:50 p.m. and found the victim suffering from serious injuries.
The man, later identified as 29-year-old Brandon Probst of Stuarts Draft, was alone in the home, but had been stabbed in the neck and chest with a knife, court filings state. Probst was transported to Winchester Medical Center, where he died from his injuries a day later.
The homeowner, who was not identified, told police she walked into the home, saw the man, ran out, and contacted authorities. She told police she didn’t know the man and could hear him crying as she walked through the door.
“I never saw him. I just heard a man crying,” she told FOX 5. “I hadn’t turned the lights on, and I could tell somebody was on the sofa, and it looked like they had a blanket that I keep there on the sofa pulled over them.”
Officials with the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation, leading them to Augusta County, where they arrested Velasquez-Martinez on March 30 at a hotel in Front Royal. Authorities charged the man with malicious wounding and murder.
Court documents state the men became embroiled in an altercation in and around a vehicle outside the property where the victim was found. It is not known why the group were there.
A woman inside the vehicle attempted to intervene, at which point police say Velasquez-Martinez cut her on the arm. She received 16 stitches while in the hospital, she told police. Officials did not provide additional details about the crime
Velasquez-Martinez is being represented by a public defender and information for his attorney was not available in court filings. His arraignment was on March 31 and he remains in custody.
Anyone with information on the incident is being asked to contact officials at 540-422-8650.
Source: independent.co.uk
