Testimony enough to take beating to trial, judge says

Alejandro Guitierrez’s last memory on the night of Dec. 29 was leaving a downtown Coeur d’Alene bar.

Minutes later, he was unconscious, lying on his back and being kicked in the head by steel-toed boots.

Coeur d’Alene construction workers Peter J. Schmitt and Michael Gross, both 24, have since been accused of the crime. Both have been charged with felony aggravated assault and have been released from jail after posting bond.

At Schmitt’s preliminary hearing Friday, his attorney, Clark Peterson, asked for the charge against Schmitt to be dismissed. Peterson argued that not enough evidence exists for the charge and that Schmitt had been acting in self-defense.

Schmitt said nothing during the nearly three-hour hearing. Though Guitierrez’s beating left him unable to recall the incident, testimony from witnesses painted a picture of what happened that night.

After Guitierrez and a woman left a downtown nightclub, they passed Schmitt and Gross, who had also just left a bar, according to the testimony. Either Schmitt or Gross made a comment to the woman, which provoked Guitierrez and ended up sparking a fight in a parking lot near the corner of Third Street and Mullan.

Guitierrez was eventually tackled. A bouncer from a nearby bar then noticed the fight just as Guitierrez was first kicked in the head. Roberto Egusquiza, head of security at The Torch Lounge, said he saw two men kicking Guitierrez “like they were trying to kick his head off. They were kicking as hard as they could.”

Guitierrez was lying motionless as he was being kicked. Egusquiza ran across the street to stop the fight. “I thought they were going to kill the guy,” said Egusquiza, who then described the sound of the boots striking the head as “the most brutal sound I’ve ever heard.”

One of the men fled the scene as Egusquiza ran towards the fight. The remaining man reeled back to kick Guitierrez again, but Egusquiza dove at the man and pushed him down, fracturing his own elbow in the process.

Gross was arrested at the scene, but the other assailant was not.

The next morning, Schmitt told a coworker he and Gross had been in a fight and that they had kicked a man in the head, according to testimony from the coworker. Schmitt gave a similar account to another coworker several days later, who advised Schmitt to get an attorney and cooperate with authorities.

Investigators believe Guitierrez, 24, might have died were it not for the intervention by the bouncer. Guitierrez’s nose, skull and finger were fractured in the beating. He continues to suffer altered vision, headaches and dizzy spells. “I had a great deal of pain,” Guitierrez testified.

After hearing the testimony, Judge Penny Friedlander was convinced that enough evidence exists for Schmitt to be charged. A trial date has not yet been set. Gross also is facing trial.