WASHINGTON - A 30-year-old Northeast Washington, D.C. man, Angel Argueta-Anariba, was sentenced on Thursday, November 6, 2008, by Superior Court Judge Robert I. Richter to 96 months of imprisonment. Judge Richter imposed the sentence following a September trial where a jury found Argueta-Anariba guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon, aggravated assault while armed and carrying a dangerous weapon. Upon the completion of his sentence, Argueta, an illegal alien, faces deportation to Honduras.

The government's evidence established at trial that on September 23, 2007, following a number of barroom disagreements with the victim over the course of several months, Argueta-Anariba approached the victim as the victim was about to enter a bar in the 3500 block of Fourteenth Street, NW. Argueta-Anariba began to argue with the victim. As he did so, Argueta-Anariba pulled a knife and stabbed the victim in the top of the head. The knife broke through the victim's skull and penetrated deeply into the victim's brain. Argueta-Anariba fled the scene, leaving the knife protruding from the victim's skull. The assault was witnessed by the owner of the bar who was outside during the assault, and later identified Argueta-Anariba as the assailant. After stabbing the victim, Argueta-Anariba fled to his girlfriend's residence where he admitted the stabbing to another witness. The victim, who suffered a significant brain injury, and who remains partially paralyzed, testified at trial and also identified Argueta-Anariba as his assailant.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor commended several officers of the Metropolitan Police Department, including Detectives Emilio Martinez, Elba Longo and Frank Santiago, Sergeants Shane Lamond, Michael Bowman and Adam Snapko, Crime Scene Search Officer Holly Paige, and Officers Matthew Mahl, Matthew Burke, Anthony Suarez, Doran Gunnells, Jose Gonzalez-Rivera and Eliseo Medina. Finally, U.S. Attorney Taylor thanked Larry Grasso and Shannon Alexis of the Intelligence Section of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Paralegal Kalisha Johnson-Clark, Victim Witness Advocate James Brennan, Litigation Services Technicians Timothy Linder and Thomas "Ron" Royal, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward A. O'Connell, who investigated, indicted and tried the case.