Man allegedly beat 23-year-old man with baseball bat in Walworth apartment
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
A Walworth man charged with attempted homicide for allegedly beating a man with a baseball bat pleaded not guilty to two charges during a Jan. 29 arraignment hearing in Walworth County Circuit Court.
Gabino Dominguez Gonzalez, 41, was charged Jan. 5 in Walworth County Circuit Court with attempted first-degree intentional homicide and aggravated battery, both with domestic abuse assessments.
According to the complaint, Gonzalez and a 23-year-old man with whom he lives on Beloit Street in Walworth went out to the Show Palace in the Town of Darien where they drank Dec. 26, according to the criminal complaint. Gonzalez said the man became angry when Gonzalez wanted to leave the club, they began to argue, and the man punched Gonzalez in the parking lot and said, “I’m going to hell and taking you with me,” according to the complaint. A manager intervened, Gonzalez told police.
Gonzalez and the man returned to their Walworth home where Gonzalez said the man attacked him when he came out of the bathroom, according to the complaint. Gonzalez said he grabbed a baseball bat and hit the man three or four times, according to the complaint.
Village of Walworth Officer Daniel Essington, who has been an officer for five years and has been with the village for about three months, said during the Jan. 19 preliminary hearing he responded to 418 Beloit St., Apt. 7, Walworth, on Dec. 27 for a fight in progress.
While en route, Essington said a dispatcher told him a bat and possibly knives were being used.
Essington said when he got up to the apartment, a woman told him, “He’s in there,” referring him to an area down a long hallway in the apartment between two bedrooms where Essington said he saw a Hispanic man, whom he identified during the hearing as Gonzalez, looking into the right side bedroom. At the time, Essington said the man did not have anything in his hands, and he did not see a bat near Gonzalez or the victim.
Essington said as he moved down the hallway, Gonzalez had his hands raised and, while Essington was preparing to arrest him, he saw another Hispanic man lying face up in the bedroom with blood on his face. Essington said the man, who did not have a shirt on, had bruising all over the front of his chest and there was blood on the floor.
The man was taken to Mercy Hospital in Janesville with facial fractures, skull fractures, bleeding on his brain, bruising and swelling on his chest and shoulders, severe deformity of his face, contusions on his abdomen, a cut on his head and a detached retina, according to the complaint.
Gonzalez’s wife said she left the apartment with her daughter after Gonzalez called her to the parking lot of the apartment building at about 11:50 p.m. and said he was “going to show (victim) who was in charge,” according to the complaint. She returned to the home and had her daughter call 911 en route when a neighbor called her and said the fight was “turning nasty.” The woman said Gonzalez is abusive and she fears for herself and her daughters, according to the complaint.
Essington said Gonzalez was cooperative and did not try to resist.
Two knives were found near the victim, and a knife was found in his pocket, but Gonzalez said the man had no weapons when Gonzalez hit him with the bat, according to the complaint, which Essington confirmed Jan. 19.
Gonzalez will next appear at 1:15 p.m. on March 17 for a status conference.
