Vernal man arrested for allegedly stabbing brother with screwdriver

Vernal man arrested for allegedly stabbing brother with screwdriver


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VERNAL — Police say a night of drinking and fighting ended with one brother in jail and another in the hospital.

Officers were called about 4:15 a.m. Tuesday to a house near 700 West and 500 South on a report that someone had been stabbed, Vernal Police Sgt. Vance Norton said.

"The front two windows were broke out, there was glass everywhere, quite a bit of blood up the staircase," said Norton, describing the scene.

Witnesses told police there had been verbal and physical fights between Derrick David Herrera, a man Herrera identified as his brother and three women throughout a night of heavy drinking.

At some point, Herrera and two of the women began to fight and Herrera's brother tried to intervene, the witnesses said. A "lengthy fight" ensued and Herrera used a screwdriver to stab his brother in the back, Norton said.

The victim wasn't at the house when officers arrived. "He had called a cab and was on his way to the hospital," the sergeant said.

The man suffered a punctured lung and other injuries, Norton said. He told investigators he knew Herrera was armed with a screwdriver during their fight, but didn't immediately realize he had been stabbed.

"It was later, when he actually started feeling the pain in his shoulder and started having trouble breathing, that he realized something was wrong," Norton said.

Herrera was booked into the Uintah County Jail for investigation of aggravated assault. No formal charges have been filed and no date for his first court appearance has been scheduled.

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Geoff Liesik

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