A 42-year-old man was accused last week of beating a drunken man with a baseball bat at a vacant Waukesha apartment on Jackson Court.
Roberto A. Guzman, currently being held in Waukesha County Jail, was charged on Tuesday, Nov. 19 in Waukesha County Circuit Court with substantial battery and disorderly conduct.
If convicted, Guzman could face up to four years imprisonment and $11,000 in fines.
According to the criminal complaint, an officer with Waukesha City Police was dispatched at about 10 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 16 to an apartment at 333 Jackson Court after receiving reports of an assault.
The officer found victim Ricardo Zaragoza being held up by a neighbor, who said in the complaint that Zaragoza had been in a fight. Zaragoza was "extremely bloody," the complaint states.
He was transported by ambulance to Waukesha Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for a concussion, multiple bruises, a wrist fracture and various cuts and scrapes, the complaint states.
He told police in a statement the next day that he was at the liquor store Saturday when he was approached by a man who asked him if he wanted to come back to his place to drink.
Zaragoza, heavily intoxicated, said yes, the complaint states. At the apartment were about seven people, six men and one woman. Only Guzman was identified in the complaint.
Zaragoza told police in the complaint he provided money to them so they could buy crack cocaine. At some point, a fight ensued between him and two other men.
He said in the complaint he ran out of the apartment but somebody chased him down with a baseball bat and struck him several times.
According to the complaint, police suspected that Guzman was the man who hit Zaragoza with the bat. Guzman said in a statement to police that he
and two other people were "hustling" to get money for crack cocaine. He said that Zaragoza looked like an easy mark and they invited him back to the apartment, the complaint states.
They talked for a bit and the woman convinced Zaragoza to give them money for drugs. He said in the complaint that Zaragoza became angry later in the evening after the woman left.
He started a fight with two men who had come over, Guzman told police in the complaint, and one of the men knocked him to the floor.
Zaragoza then allegedly started trashing the common area of the apartment complex and tried to attack Guzman, the complaint states. Guzman
then left the apartment and struck Zaragoza with the bat two or three times, according to the complaint.
He is expected to appear at a preliminary hearing on Dec. 27.