Prosser man was looking at decades in prison for a stabbing. Then the victim disappeared

A 27-year-old man dodged decades in prison after the man he nearly killed disappeared.

Jorge I. Gonzalez had been charged with first-degree assault after he forced his way into a Prosser home and stabbed a man taking a shower multiple times.

The blade cut into the man’s lung, damaged his liver and nearly killed him, Deputy Prosecutor Brittnie Roehm said.

After being charged, Gonzalez faced a possible sentence from 25 years to 28 years in prison. But in the months since, his victim disappeared.

Without the victim, Roehm said she didn’t have enough evidence to head to trial. Instead, they lessened the charge to third-degree assault with a recommendation that he serve five years in prison.

“In this case, we could not have proceeded to trial,” she said. “I don’t like the outcome, but I do think it’s appropriate.”

Investigators don’t believe that the disappearance is related to the case, Roehm told the Tri-City Herald

Gonzalez did not say anything in sentencing, but his attorney Adolfo Banda said his client wants to move on. The attorney noted that prosecutors would have a difficult time proving the charges.

“It’s a just recommendation,” he said.

Gonzalez has a lengthy criminal history that dates back nearly 15 years and includes property crimes, drug possession and misdemeanor assault.

Prosser attack

The victim told police that he had recently started a relationship with a woman whom he had met in a Toppenish casino about a month and a half previously. While he said they were “seeing each other” they weren’t dating, according to court documents.

On Feb. 28, 2023, they were preparing to go to the woman’s parents’ house and the victim was in the shower. He heard the woman ask Gonzalez what he was doing there and how he “got out already,” court documents said.

Gonzalez had just spent three months in drug treatment, court documents said. They told police that they were dating.

Gonzalez heard someone in the shower and began questioning the woman about it. After she responded that it wasn’t any of Gonzalez’s business, he allegedly forced his way into the bathroom.

Gonzalez started yelling at the man to get out, and began swinging at the man.

He soon realized that Gonzalez had a 10-inch kitchen knife and was stabbing him.

After the attack, the victim got out of the house, and he remembered the woman saying that they needed to get to the hospital.

Gonzalez and the woman dropped the victim off at Prosser Memorial Hospital, where he was treated. He had three large stab wounds, one that punctured the man’s lung and one that injured his liver.

Roehm said this was the only thing they did that was good because otherwise he would have died.

The two returned to the house and proceeded to clean up the blood, and what they couldn’t clean, they painted over, Roehm said.

In recent months, prosecutors have not been able to find the man, Roehm said. Detectives couldn’t find him and family members said they hadn’t spoken to him for some time.