By Wheeler Cowperthwaite
Special to the SUN

A man who stabbed his co-worker five times with a knife in December 2023, pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated battery.

Joseph Segovia, 38, pleaded guilty to the single charge on March 11.

The plea deal, signed by prosecutor Kimberly Weston, gave him an entirely suspended three-year sentence and stated he is eligible for a conditional discharge.

District Attorney Anastasia Martin entered an order for the conditional discharge the following day, March 12. That means that the case is currently suspended. Segovia will be on supervised probation for three years and if he does not violate his probation, at the end, the charge will be dis-missed. After 18 months with no violations, he will be released from probation, and the charges will be dismissed early and “all of his constitutional rights shall be restored.”

These are some of the conditions of his probation: he cannot possess or use alcohol or controlled substances without a prescription and he must complete eight hours of community service.

Segovia was bound over to district court on Jan. 17, 2024, after the stabbing victim, Blake Hubbard, and Española Police Officer Ernest Saucedo testified.

Saucedo wrote in a criminal complaint for Segovia’s arrest that one witness, Nicole Valdez, told him that Segovia was the warehouse manager for the Windstream office at 2000 North Riverside Drive and when the victim got to office, Hubbard ignored him.

Valdez told him that she heard the pair arguing and another witness told her that they were engaged in a fist fight, before more people went in to break it up. Segovia asserted his right to only speak in the presence of his attorney while Hubbard, at the hospital, told Saucedo that he went to the warehouse to get a fiber optic cable for a job and Segovia, new to the position, told him he couldn’t go in without “prior authorization,” but Hubbard ignored him and kept walking, Saucedo wrote.

The pair engaged in a “verbal altercation” before Segovia pushed Hubbard and pulled out a knife and placed it behind his back, Hubbard told Saucedo.

“Mr. Hubbard stated he defended himself by engaging in a fight with Mr. Segovia,” Saucedo wrote. “Mr. Hubbard stated he was not aware that he was stabbed until the fight stopped.”

The stab wounds were on the left side of his cheek, the middle of his chest, his left rib cage, his left waistline and his lower left abdomen, Saucedo wrote.