[1]Gregory L. Trujillo is being held in the Lewis County Jail on $500,000 bail.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A 58-year-old man accused of beating a woman and attacking her with a knife at her Winlock home will get his chance to make his plea in Lewis County Superior Court on Thursday morning.
Gregory L. Trujillo is being held on $500,000 bail following his arrest last week for the incident.
He is charged with first-degree assault.
The Toledo area man appeared before a judge in a wheel chair last week. Defense attorney Joely O’Rourke noted he worked as a longshoreman, is a longtime area resident and has lots of family ties to the community.
Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Nelson told the judge Trujillo had July 2012 convictions for second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and felony harassment.
Trujillo was picked up by police the night before at a Chehalis motel after his release from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Toledo Police Department Chief John Brockmueller said the night it happened, Trujillo sustained wounds to his abdomen and the woman had lacerations to her upper extremities. She declined an ambulance and was going to the hospital with a friend.
Police were still working the following Monday to figure out who did what.
Charging documents in the case don’t offer any clues about a disagreement between the two before the assault.
They give the following account of the emergency response about 9:30 p.m. on April 1 to the 300 block of Cedar Court in Winlock.
Police documented blood smears and splatters at various locations throughout the woman’s house. They were unable to locate the weapon, but were told it was a small-bladed knife.
The woman had multiple bruises on different parts of her body, a black eye swollen shut. She sustained a large deep gash from the palm of her hand near her ring finger to the outer portion of her hand near her wrist.
She was located at a neighbors. Trujillo was still inside the house.
Officers surrounded the residence and made multiple attempts to contact him with no response and finally made entry and found him in a bedroom, with what appeared to be stab wounds to his belly.
No information is included regarding a police interview with Trujillo.
The woman however, spoke to police.
She said the two had been in an intimate relationship for a couple of months, and on that date, he found her at a neighbor’s and asked if he could speak with her at her house. She agreed.
“As the victim walked into her house, the defendant began beating her with his closed fists,” Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Sheila Weirth wrote. “The victim tried to get away by moving toward the back of the house, while the defendant kept on hitting her, kicking her and even biting her.”
She said he pulled out a knife with a black handle and began attacking her. She used her hands to try to protect herself.
She managed to get back to the living room and as she moved to escape out the front door, Trujillo yelled, “You’re not leaving here alive, Bitch!”
At that point the neighbor knocked, the victim opened the door and the two fled.
Judge Richard Brosey last Thursday afternoon appointed Centralia attorney Don Blair to represent Trujillo. A no-contact order was also put into place.
Trujillo’s arraignment is Thursday morning.
•••
For background, read “News brief: One booked for Winlock knife incident” from for Thursday April 7, 2016, here [2]