The wife of a store clerk who was allegedly beaten with a sledgehammer nearly four years ago testified in the trial of Rodobaldo Sanchez Wednesday that she still remembered the call she got the night her husband was attacked.
“You need to come home right now because something very bad happened to your husband,” the wife said through an interpreter.
Sanchez is accused of the sledgehammer attack on Yue Kui Cen in 2011. Sanchez is facing charges of attempted first degree murder and armed robbery for the attack. Prosecutors said that Sanchez was shopping at Alex’s Mini Market at 501 NW 12th Avenue on the day of the attack.
As Cen rang up the items, Sanchez allegedly sprayed Cen in the face with an unknown chemical before hitting him in the back of the head several times with a sledgehammer. Police said Sanchez allegedly grabbed two cartons of cigarettes and fled the scene on his bike after the sledgehammer attack.
Doctors at first didn’t know if Cen would survive, but said if he did he would be brain damaged.
“When you see him now, can you have a conversation with him?” prosecutor Santiago Roque asked Wednesday. “No,” answered Rigoberto Reyes.
The trial is expected to continue through Friday. Defense attorneys haven’t said if Sanchez will testify on his own behalf.
