A second judge has rejected a plea agreement mandating a 3.5-year prison term for a Bullhead City man who is charged in separate assault cases. The case involving 26-year-old Luis Romero was reassigned to Mohave County Superior Court Judge Rick Lambert after Judge Billy Sipe rejected the proposed deal on July 2.
Like Sipe, Lambert found the punishment to be too lenient when he refused to accept the same plea agreement during a July 23 hearing in Kingman.
Prosecutor Karolina Czaplinska said she was dropping the case involving an assault that left Romero’s girlfriend with blackened and swollen eyes because the victim does not wish to participate in legal proceedings.
“We have an uncooperative witness,” Czaplinska said. “We take no joy whatsoever in dismissing this matter”.
Lambert said he understands dropping that case, but that 3.5 years in prison is insufficient given Romero’s conduct in a separate assault committed last September. The violence summarized in a pre-sentence investigation indicated that Romero and two other men were in a vehicle when they jumped a 22–year-old man who was trying to purchase some marijuana in an alley.
Judge Lambert said Romero struck the man several times before forcing him into the back seat where the beating continued with brass knuckles while the vehicle drove away. Lambert said Romero told the victim they were going to take him to the desert and cut off his fingers before further dismembering him.
The victim was able to get out of the vehicle when it came to a stop by the Dollar General on Landon Drive. Judge Lambert said Romero and the other two men who wore masks got out of the vehicle and beat the victim some more.
The man suffered road rash, bumps, cuts and bruises. Hospital officials used glue and staples to close gashes on his head.
In rejecting the plea agreement, Judge Lambert said he would not approve any other deal that did not allow him to put Romero in prison for at least five years.
