Mexican national sentenced to 12 years in prison in Waco stabbing of wife’s lover
WACO, Texas (KWTX) - A Mexican national who stabbed his wife’s lover during a fight in 2023 was sentenced to 12 years in prison Wednesday.
Jurors in Waco’s 19th State District Court deliberated about 90 minutes before finding Santiago Bustamante, 32, guilty of one count of second-degree felony aggravated assault, while acquitting him on a second count that involved his wife, who was cut while trying to intervene in the fight.
Bustamante, of Guanajuato, Mexico, elected to have Judge Thomas West assess his punishment instead of the jury. He faced a maximum of 20 years in prison and must serve half of his sentence before he can seek parole.
After his release, he faces deportation to Mexico, officials said. He will be given credit for the 810 days he has spent in the McLennan County Jail under $40,000 bond and an immigration hold.
Bustamante, who has a 2020 misdemeanor conviction for assault family violence, stabbed Lonnie Vigil Jr., 39, in the stomach during a fight at a residence in the 2000 block of Summer Avenue in September 2023.
The jury found Bustamante not guilty on a second count of aggravated assault after his wife, Candice Martinez, told jurors that she was mad at her husband that night and lied about him slicing her arm because she “wanted to bury him under the jail.”
Martinez currently is serving six years in prison for evading arrest.
Vigil has three felony convictions for burglary of a habitation, one for engaging in organized criminal activity, a misdemeanor conviction for assault and currently is on parole.
He testified Tuesday that he and Martinez had been involved in a romantic relationship for about a month when Bustamante and another man showed up at the residence.
He said Bustamante approached him with a gun in his hand.
“I told him, ‘If you got it out already, use it,’” Vigil said.
Vigil told Bustamante to put the gun down and they could try to settle their differences. Bustamante swung at him and they started fighting, Vigil said.
At some point during the fight, Bustamante pulled out something sharp and stabbed Vigil in the left side of his abdomen. Vigil said he never saw a knife and police officers who responded to the assault testified they found no weapon at the scene.
“I said, ‘Damn, you stabbed me,” Vigil said. “He tried to come at me again but the other guy stopped him. But he had already gone to far.”
Vigil and others speculated that the man who arrived with Bustamante took the knife and fled the scene before police arrived.
Bustamante spent three days in the hospital.
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