2 held in assault of man found near road
Two men have been arrested in connection with the April assault of a New Braunfels man who was tied up, stabbed, shot and left for dead on the side of a road in eastern Bexar County.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said Uriah Huffman, 24, and Darryl King, 36, have been charged with aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony.
Joshua Sandoval, 24, was found bloody, bound and naked about 7:30 a.m. April 23 by a motorist who was traveling in the 11200 block of La Vernia
Road. His hands had been bound behind his back with zip ties and hogtied to his feet with an electrical cord, and Sandoval was bleeding profusely from his head, an affidavit supporting the suspects’ arrest said.
“It was a miracle he survived,” Salazar said, adding that a knife was likely used to cut Sandoval’s clothes to humiliate him.
According to the affidavit, Sandoval had been stabbed in the chest and had lacerations on his liver, arms, eye and scalp. He also had trauma to the face, head and ear with a possible jaw fracture and had been shot three times in the head and arms, the affidavit said.
Sandoval, who had one eye surgically removed, remains hospitalized.
Sandoval’s mother told investigators that the last time she had seen her son in person was on April 20.
Authorities later found Sandoval’s Ford Focus on April 25 in the parking lot of a restaurant in Cibolo. According to the affidavit, there was blood on the inside and outside of the vehicle’s trunk as well as on the front passenger and back passenger interior doors.
A Cibolo woman reported to police that she was awakened by a fight involving her neighbor Will Eckhart that ended in a loud bang on April 19. She also told police that Sandoval’s Focus had been parked at Eckhart’s house for several days after she heard the bang, according to the affidavit. She said the vehicle was being moved and parked in remote areas near the neighborhood.
When police questioned Eckhart, he said King and Huffman had been staying with him. On April 21 or 22, Eckhart told police that Sandoval had been at his house before he left and, when he returned, the living room was in disarray as if there had been an altercation, the affidavit said.
During the execution of a search warrant, investigators found a hunting knife in King’s vehicle, a knife behind the television in the living room and a knife inside King’s bedroom, according to the affidavit. A blood-stained comforter, towel and pair of sweatpants were found in the outside trash, the affidavit said.
King has been in custody for several days and is being held in Guadalupe County awaiting extradition. Salazar said King, who is on parole, was in possession of a handgun.
When questioned, King said Huffman and Sandoval had gotten into a physical altercation in which Sandoval hit the other man in the face with a guitar. King told police that when he saw both men bloodied, he left to stay with another friend.
Days later, he said he saw Huffman, who admitted to shooting Sandoval four times, according to the affidavit.
Deputies found Huffman on Tuesday at a homeless encampment near Nacogdoches and O’connor roads. He is in the Bexar County jail.
Huffman told investigators that King became angry when he found out that Sandoval had hit him with a guitar and pistol whipped Sandoval in the face several times, the affidavit said. After Huffman and King tied up Sandoval, Huffman then took a kitchen knife and cut Sandoval’s clothes off, according to the affidavit.
The two then put Sandoval in the trunk of the Ford Focus and drove him to Adkins in far eastern Bexar County, where they shot him at least three times before dumping him on the side of the road, the affidavit said.