Ramon Dominquez, a 37-year-old migrant worker, is being charged with aggravated assault after stabbing Abenamar Perez on Thursday.

According to investigator Terry Phillips, “The bottom line was everything was caused by probably too much alcohol.”

According to Phillips, Dominguez wanted to go to bed in a room where Perez and eyewitness Roel Crespo wanted to play cards in. When the two didn’t do what he asked, Dominguez used a work knife to stab Perez once in the upper torso.

Phillips said that the suspect claims that there was a “little bit of a shoving match that led up to this happening,” but this does not match up with Perez or Crespo’s sides of the story.

They all reside at a migrant worker camp on Betts Mill Road, where each building has three bedrooms that house four workers. Crespo lives in the same room as Dominquez, and Perez lives in a room adjacent to them.

After the stabbing, Perez and Crespo went outside and asked another male living at the camp to call 911. Perez was still conscious and alert. According to Phillips, because of a language barrier, once officers arrived on scene, they had to communicate mostly with hand gestures to find out what happened.

According to the incident report, Crespo led deputies to the suspect’s room and pointed out Dominquez, who was sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

Marijuana was found in Dominquez’s pocket, and the knife used in the stabbing was found under the mattress.

According to Phillips, during an interview with Dominquez, he admitted to the stabbing and having had alcohol beforehand, along with “a little bit of marijuana.”

Perez was transported to a hospital in Tallahassee, where he had surgery due to the knife puncturing his lung. According to Phillips, he is now stable.

Crespo was the only eyewitness, but according to Phillips, there were two other migrant workers sleeping in the room when the stabbing occurred.

“I find it hard to believe that you got this kind of thing going on in a room, and you’re sleeping through it with the lights on and you don’t see nothing,” said Phillips.