Anthony Aguilera on trial for attempted murder of Scott Bargar,
who says he fought for his life
San Martin – The victim in the attempted murder trial of Anthony Aguilera testified Monday he was “fighting for (his) life,” with a box cutter after he was stabbed several times in the head during a drug deal gone bad at a Morgan Hill hotel last January.
Scott Bargar suffered life-threatening injuries after he was stabbed multiple times in the neck, head and face at the Extended Stay America hotel Jan. 29, 2005. Suspected Norteño gang member Aguilera, 22, is the primary suspect in the incident. He faces two separate counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, shooting into an inhabited vehicle and evading a police officer. Aguilera is charged in a separate attempted murder incident on Oct. 23, 2004 when a man was shot three times in his car in the parking lot of a Gilroy liquor store.
“I was fighting for my life,” Bargar told defense attorney Andy Tursi at Santa Clara County Superior Courthouse. “I was going to do whatever I had to do to get out of that room alive.”
According to Bargar, he drove to the hotel room to sell about $1,000 worth of marijuana to someone one of his friend’s knew. He was nervous about conducting that large of a deal and brought a box cutter with him for protection. One of Aguilera’s past lovers testified Friday that he asked her to rent him a room at the hotel that day.
Upon entering the hotel room Bargar was immediately struck in the back of the head with something hard, he said. He turned and wrestled a gun out of an unidentified man’s hands.
The 24-year-old former San Martin resident said there was one point in the struggle that he had the box cutter up to his attacker’s neck.
“I could have cut his throat easily, but I didn’t want to,” he said. “I essentially told him, ‘We could walk out of here without additional harm.’ He obviously didn’t want to do that.”
Bargar showed the jury his injuries, pointing to a 3-inch scar along his hairline, a 3-inch crescent-shaped scar along his neck, and a 1-inch scar along his nose.
“I’m still not normal,” he said.
Bargar said he broke away from his attacker and ran down the hallway trying to find the exit. As Bargar tugged on the handle of a door in the hallway someone stabbed him in the neck, he said.
“I was painting the walls with my neck,” Bargar said. “I drove as fast as I could to the nearest friend’s house because I didn’t think I could make it to the hospital.”
He never once looked at Aguilera as he testified. And he didn’t look at him when he left the courtroom. Bargar could not identify Aguilera as his attacker because he never saw the man’s face, he said.
A second stabbing victim testified that Aguilera stabbed him in November 2004 when the two men were partying together at a relative’s house in Gilroy.
Mike Hernandez said they left the house together to purchase more methamphetamine when Aguilera punched him without warning in the face near Gilroy High School. At one point during the fight he realized Aguilera was armed with a small knife.
“When I felt my stomach it was warm,” he said. “I felt my jacket and it was full of blood.”
But Aguilera’s mother Barbara believes there is more to the story that hasn’t been told.
“As (his) mother I will be the first to admit that if my son is found guilty of the crimes he is accused of then he needs to pay for what he did,” she said. “All that I am asking though is that you please look at the whole picture … Anthony may have hurt someone badly. But if he did, he was also trying to defend himself. Anthony was also stabbed during the course of this fight. Had he been the one with the more severe wounds, it would be his victims on trial now.”
She believes that the prosecution is using the label of a gang member to paint her son as monster.
“I will never try to hide the truth in order to spare my son from punishment if he is wrong,” she said. “I can only tell you that, as his mother, he is not a monster … Anthony is a young man who made mistakes.”
The trial continues today.
