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A soccer ball I saw in Florence, Italy last year. (Photo by Claudio Villa/Getty Images)
A Marlborough man who nearly cut off his friend's hand with a machete during a disagreement at a soccer match last year has been found guilty of disorderly conduct.
A Middlesex Superior Court jury found Abel Hernandez, 41, guilty of threatening to commit a crime and disorderly conduct after a four-day trial. Judge Katharine Hamm sentenced him to four to five years in state prison for the mayhem. He will also be placed on probation for three years.
Hernandez was hosting a soccer game party at his home on Broad Street in Marlboro. At one point, Hernandez and at least one other man got into a heated argument over an aspect of the match, which prompted Hernandez to pick up a machete, prosecutors said.
“I'm going to kill you,” Hernandez told the man, swinging a machete and striking the victim in the forearm, according to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office.
The unidentified victim suffered serious injuries, with prosecutors saying his arm was almost “completely severed.”
Hernandez fled the home after the disturbance, but police apprehended him later that night at the intersection of Church and Hildreth streets in Marlboro, according to a statement from the DA's office.
In his defense, Hernandez claimed he was not at the scene that night, but that he had been drinking elsewhere and then went to the woman's house, according to a statement from the DA's office. Prosecutors said at trial that the restaurant where Hernandez was drinking does not serve alcohol and was not open on Sunday when Hernandez seriously injured the man.
See more in the Boston Herald