A 27-year-old Odessa man was arrested New Year’s Day after police were summoned to Medical Center Hospital about a stabbing victim.
According to an Odessa Police Department report, Lucy Cortes, a 34-year-old woman from Plainview, told officers she was with her boyfriend, Houston Mendieta, and an acquaintance named Jorene Jonell Gomez, 32, on Jan. 1 when they stopped at the Loves Truck stop so she could use the bathroom.
Cortez said when she returned from the bathroom she saw Mendieta and Gomez getting intimate with each other, but when she started to walk away, Mendieta forced her into the car and Gomez drove away. According to the report, Cortez said the pair took her to an area south of the truck where Mendieta assaulted her and Gomez stabbed her.
Cortez told authorities she ran away from the two and got help from people in a neighboring residence.
Odessa police officers later stopped the vehicle at gunpoint and the suspects were taken to the police station.
According to the report, Mendieta said Gomez stabbed Cortez. However Gomez said Mendieta and Cortez fought each other. She further stated she forced them to get out of her car and when Mendieta got back into the car he had blood on his pants. Cortez, she said, ran away and Mendieta told her to forget about her.
Mendieta was booked into the Ector County jail on one count of aggravated assault/family violence, a first-degree felony punishable by five years to life in prison. He remained in the jail Thursday on a $70,000 surety bond.
Ector Court records show Mendieta was sentenced to 12 months in prison in March 2022 after he violated the terms of his community supervision in an unauthorized use of a motor vehicle case.
Ector County jail records show Gomez was booked into the jail on a U.S. Marshal’s hold and released to another agency on Thursday. Records also show Gomez was booked into the jail in early December on drug charges by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Cortez was also booked into the Ector County jail on two felony warrants out of Floyd and Hale counties. She has since been released to other authorities to stand trial in a drug case and a stolen car case.
