LYNCHBURG, Va. (WFXR) – The Commonwealth’s Attorney in Lynchburg has announced the sentencing of a man for aggravated malicious wounding after a brutal stabbing that occurred in 2022.
Commonwealth Attorney, Bethany Harrison said that on November 13, Nery Duban Escobar Torres was sentenced to 40 years’ incarceration with 20 years suspended after he cut a man’s throat and stabbed him in the chest during an unprovoked attack in downtown Lynchburg.
Court records show that on October 4, 2022, LPD officers responded to an apartment complex on the 1000 block of Jefferson Street after eyewitnesses reported a stabbing. On the scene, a man was found unconscious inside an apartment with “significant stab wounds” to the neck and chest.
The responding officer immediately began performing emergency aid on the victim.
The officer then saw 25-year-old Nery Duban Escobar Torres, covered in blood walking toward him and the victim with a knife in his hand. Torres was quickly taken into custody and later confessed to “cutting” the victim during questioning.
Eyewitnesses of the attack said it was “sudden and unprovoked” and that Torres was seen “hanging out of a window screaming at the victim as they collapsed in the doorway to the apartment building.”
Thanks to the actions of the responding officer, the victim survived the attack.
On July 9, 2024, Escobar Torres pleaded guilty to Aggravated Malicious Wounding.
Escobar Torres was charged with Aggravated Malicious Wounding as opposed to Attempted Murder as Aggravated Malicious Wounding carries a higher punishment range of 20 years to life whereas Attempted Degree Murder carries a 2-year to 10-year sentencing range.