MIAMI — A Florida man who brutally assaulted his wife with a large kitchen knife in December 2022 has been jailed, police say, nearly three years after an attack that included slicing her tongue in half.
On December 22, 2022, Miami officers responded to a home after receiving reports of a violent domestic attack. When they arrived, they found the woman bleeding heavily. She told officers that she and her husband, Hugo Hernandez Murcia, now 51, had been arguing earlier that day about their daughter.
The woman said Hernandez Murcia had been drinking heavily, about half a bottle of tequila, and refused to detail their daughter’s whereabouts, according to his arrest warrant. She also told police that he had repeatedly threatened to kill all three of them in the past.
Trying to defuse the situation, the woman grabbed a pack of cigarettes and walked to the back porch. Moments later, Hernandez Murcia grabbed a knife, seized her by the neck and slammed her head against a wall, leaving her weak, according to the warrant.
He then began slashing her across the face with the knife and eventually forced the blade into her mouth, cutting her tongue in half. The woman managed to wrestle the knife away, injuring her hands and fingers in the process.
Hernandez Murcia then demanded money from her, police say. She handed over $3,000 in cash from her purse. Detectives later found the bloody 14-inch knife and blood spattered throughout the residence.
In January 2023, the victim went to Miami Police Headquarters to give a formal statement. Officers noted that her speech was slurred as a result of her injuries.
After nearly three years, Hernandez Murcia was extradited this week from the Chesapeake Correctional Center in Virginia and booked Tuesday into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami.
He is being held without bond as of Wednesday. He’s charged with attempted murder, robbery with a deadly weapon, domestic battery by strangulation and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm.
It remains unclear why it took authorities almost three years to arrest him or what he was doing in Virginia.
By MILENA MALAVER/Miami Herald
