Ernier Pacheco
A city man who was indicted earlier this year in connection with the 2014 stabbing death of Alberto Saquic, now faces aggravated assault charges stemming from an incident that happened three months before Saquic’s murder.
Ernier Pacheco, 19, is currently in jail awaiting trial for the murder of 21-year-old Saquic, which Pacheco claims was self-defense. But over the past 16 months, police developed enough probable cause to charge Pacheco in connection with an assault that sent one man to the hospital with a head injury caused by a baseball bat.
Around 11:45 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2014, four people were walking in the 200 block of Cummings Avenue when two suspects approached them from behind. Police say two of the four people in the initial group were slightly ahead of the others, when the two in the rear were assaulted.
Police say one victim was hit in the head with a baseball bat, and the other victim was punched in the head with a closed fist. The two people walking ahead of the others then turned to help the victims, police say, and the suspects fled. But while the suspects were running, one of the victims managed to grab a suspect’s jacket.
Later, on Nov. 30, 2014, Saquic was stabbed in the chest while outside of Chapala II Mexican Grill and Bar in the Chambersburg section of the city; he later died at the hospital. Pacheco was arrested that same day and charged with murder and weapons offenses in connection with Saquic’s death, and he remains in jail on $750,000 bail. Prosecutors say the incident was captured by surveillance video, and that Saquic was laying on a ramp outside the bar being restrained by bouncers when Pacheco lunged at him with a knife, stabbing him once in the chest.
Police continued to investigate the August 2014 assault, and over the past 16 months investigators gathered enough evidence to charge Pacheco with aggravated assault and weapons offenses in connection with the baseball bat attack.
Bail for Pacheco’s new charges was set at $100,000 cash.