Man found guilty in Virginia Beach machete attack
Posted to: Crime News Virginia Beach

By Shawn Day
The Virginian-Pilot
© December 17, 2008

VIRGINIA BEACH

A 25-year-old illegal immigrant was convicted in Circuit Court Tuesday of striking a restaurant security guard in the back of the head with a machete this summer.

Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before returning to announce they had found Marlon Ivan Granados-Umaña guilty of malicious wounding.

They recommended he serve 10 years in prison, and formal sentencing was set for March 16.

Granados-Umaña, a native of Honduras, was working for a local flooring company before his arrest July 12, according to testimony.

Before the attack, security guards had ordered Granados-Umaña and several of his friends out of Jalisco bar and restaurant on Virginia Beach Boulevard after they groped women taking part in a bikini contest, according to court testimony. The customers and guards began brawling.

Granados-Umaña used a machete he retrieved from a friend’s pickup truck to strike Travis Russell before running away. Russell needed 13 staples to close his wound.

Witnesses testified Granados-Umaña got into the rear of his friend’s pickup truck. A police officer testified that, as he pulled the vehicle over, Granados-Umaña jumped from the pickup and tossed the bloody machete onto the grass.

Granados-Umaña testified it was an acquaintance who struck Russell. He acknowledged throwing the machete onto the grass and running from police, but said it was only because he was scared because he didn’t have a Social Security number.

Shawn Day, (757) 222-5131, shawn.day@pilotonline.com

http://hamptonroads.com/node/491751