He stabbed a man in a Prosser bathroom, then helped take him to a hospital, say police

A 26-year-old man is accused of stabbing a man inside a Benton County trailer and then helping him to the hospital.

Jorge I. Gonzalez walked into a Moore Road home on Feb. 28 and attacked Raul Betancourt with a 10-inch kitchen knife, according to court records.

Gonzalez was then seen on a video helping Betancourt get to Prosser Memorial Hospital.

Now, he is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail in the Benton County jail on one count of first-degree assault.

The investigation into the stabbing started after the hospital called Benton County deputies about the wounded man.

Betancourt told investigators he met Judith Rodriguez at a Toppenish casino about a month earlier. While he wouldn’t say that they were dating, they had been seeing each other, he said.

Rodriguez later told investigators they were just friends. And Betancourt apparently didn’t know that Rodriguez and Gonzalez had been dating and were living together.

On Feb. 28, Gonzalez was released from a jail in Sunnyside and was given a ride home.

When he got there Betancourt was in the shower alone getting ready to go to Rodriguez’s mother’s house, said court documents.

He heard Rodriguez asking someone “what he was doing there” and “how he ‘got out already.’”

Gonzalez allegedly realized someone was in the bathroom and grabbed a kitchen knife.

Betancourt was getting dressed when Gonzalez reportedly kicked the bathroom door in and starting yelling at him to leave.

Then Gonzalez started swinging at Betancourt. At first, Betancourt thought it was a fist fight, then realized that Gonzalez had a large knife, according to court documents.

He was stabbed three times in the back, one punctured his chest cavity and another injured his liver, according to the documents.

He remembers being driven by someone to the hospital but didn’t know who helped him.

Security cameras spotted a Nissan Sentra stop at the emergency room door at Prosser Memorial and Gonzalez and Rodriguez were seen getting out of the car. Gonzalez then helped Betancourt out.

Police later tracked Gonzalez and Rodriguez to a trailer on Higdon Road.

He told investigators that he was innocent and had been driving with Rodriguez when they saw what appeared to be a sick man walking along the road and they took him to the hospital.

When police searched the Moore Road trailer they found a bloody fingerprint on a wood railing on the front porch and the bathroom appeared “overly clean,” according to court documents. And it appeared Rodriguez had tried to cover the blood up with fresh paint.

She has not been not charged with a crime.