Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — A Hazleton man accused of shooting his machete-wielding attacker in the face with a flare gun loaded with fishing sinkers pleaded guilty Tuesday to simple assault.
Jeremy Rivera, 28, of North Laurel Street, faced aggravated assault and related charges from the 2015 altercation in which police allege he and Luiggi Fernandez, 27, squared off in Rivera’s apartment in a tussle that turned bloody.
Rivera, police said, was wounded when he tried to fend off Fernandez’s attack and, at some point in the altercation, shot Fernandez in the face with the weapon. Police later discovered it was full of make-shift rounds composed of lead fishing sinkers.
Blood was found inside and outside the apartment as well as on the handle and blade of the machete, police said.
It was unclear what caused the fight, but witnesses told investigators the two men had gotten into another altercation hours earlier, arrest papers state. Both men were treated for their injuries.
In exchange for Rivera’s plea, a felony aggravated assault charge was reduced to simple assault and remaining misdemeanors were withdrawn. Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough accepted Rivera’s plea and scheduled his sentencing for March 17.
Charging documents for Fernandez could not be located.