Inset: Joe Herrera (McLennan County Jail). Background: The suburban street near where Herrera allegedly stabbed his girlfriend in Waco, Tex. (Google Maps).
A Texas man was recently arrested after stabbing his live-in girlfriend in the chest multiple times, police in the Lone Star State say.
Joe Herrera, 39, stands accused of aggravated assault relating to family violence, according to the Waco Police Department.
The underlying incident occurred on March 3, at a residence on Colcord Avenue in Waco – a medium-sized city located roughly 100 miles northwest of Austin.
Police were dispatched to deal with an active disturbance in response to a 911 call about someone being stabbed with a knife, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Waco-based CBS and Telemundo affiliate KWTX.
At the scene, responding officers found a large window broken out of the front of the house and the defendant standing in the front yard with blood on his shirt, according to the charging document. Police ascertained Herrera was the person accused of wielding the knife.
The victim then told police Herrera stabbed or “stuck” her in the chest multiple times with the tip of a paring knife before she was finally able to lock him outside of the residence, according to the affidavit.
Officers noted physical injuries on the woman said to be consistent with her account and photographed those injuries, police said.
The defendant allegedly told police he was trying to force his way back into the house because he saw his girlfriend naked inside with a man he did not recognize. Herrera also admitted to breaking the window and said that when he did so, he saw an unknown Black man run away from the house on foot, according to the affidavit.
Investigators, however, said there was no evidence another man was inside the residence. Rather, Herrera’s narrative of the events likely stemmed from paranoia after apparently seeing his girlfriend without pants through the window and him then jumping to the conclusion she had another man with her, police said.
The violence is believed to have occurred roughly two to five minutes before Herrera was locked out, according to the affidavit.
The incident is said to be evidence of a trend.
Herrera “seems to be fixated” on the idea his girlfriend is cheating on him, according to the affidavit. Law enforcement learned that many of the arguments between the couple have involved the man wanting to go through the woman’s cellphone and objecting to her going places without his knowledge, police said.
In the affidavit, a detective also wrote that the defendant has a history of being convicted for domestic violence offenses.
Herrera was arrested earlier this week and booked in the McLennan County Jail on $20,000 bond. He is no longer on the jail’s inmate roster as of this writing, and the McLennan County court system has yet to docket his case.
