POCATELLO — A 22-year-old local man was recently arrested after police say he kicked in his neighbors’ front door and threatened to kill them while holding a large knife.
Charles Brandon Wadda-Martinez, 22, of Pocatello, has been charged with one count of felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of misdemeanor malicious injury to property following the incident.
Pocatello police were dispatched to an apartment on East Halliday Street around 10:40 p.m. on Thursday for the report of a disturbance involving a man, later identified as Wadda-Martinez, kicking in a front door and smashing the front window, according to police and court records the Idaho State Journal recently obtained.
Two Pocatello police officers arrived on scene and observed that one of the apartment’s front doors was broken in several places and unable to be secured, police said. The resident of the apartment said that he was inside with a woman when he heard someone banging on his front door and yelling, the report says.
The resident then said that Wadda-Martinez began kicking in his front door causing it to break open where he observed Wadda-Martinez standing in the doorway holding a large knife in his hand, police said.
Wadda-Martinez then told the man and the woman that he was going to kill them, said police, adding that the man retreated to his back bedroom and retrieved a machete, at which point Wadda-Martinez started breaking his front windows with a rock.
Officers contacted Wadda-Martinez inside his apartment, noting that he was sweating profusely and that he had a strong odor of alcohol emanating from his person, the report says.
Wadda-Martinez was placed in handcuffs and put inside the back of a patrol car, where he told officers that he was confronting his neighbors because they had entered his sister’s apartment earlier and stole items, according to police. Wadda-Martinez told officers that he would have killed his neighbor to protect his family, the report says.
Officers contacted Wadda-Martinez’s sisters who said that the neighbors had not entered their apartment, police said.
Wadda-Martinez was then charged, arrested and booked inside the Bannock County Jail in Pocatello.
He appeared in front of 6th District Magistrate Judge Paul Laggis for an arraignment hearing on Friday, during which his bond was set at $20,000.
Wadda-Martinez is due back in court for a preliminary hearing on July 31, which will involve local prosecutors attempting to prove there is enough evidence to elevate the case from the magistrate to district court level for trial.
Prosecutors have also filed a weapons enhancement against Wadda-Martinez that could extend any prison sentence levied against him by up to 15 years.
If convicted of the felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge, he faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
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