By Neal Putnam
A man who stabbed a passenger on a Greyhound bus and later injured a gay inmate in jail was sentenced Feb. 19 to 17 years in state prison.
The injuries to both victims seemingly occurred spontaneously by Gilbert Louis Dominguez, 36, who pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon aboard a mass transit vehicle and felony assault of another inmate.
“Be cognizant of what sets you off,” said San Diego Superior Court Judge Polly Shamoon to Dominguez, who did not make a statement in court.
Dominguez stabbed Martin Hernandez, 27, on July 11, 2018, on a Greyhound bus at 12:30 p.m. while in University City.
The bus driver kicked both men off the bus and Hernandez was taken to a hospital for wounds that sliced his neck, both arms, and back. Dominguez did not know the man he stabbed, the prosecutor said.
Dominguez injured another prisoner who was gay and had animosity toward gay inmates, according to testimony in his preliminary hearing.
Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles said the inmate had to receive seven staples in his head to close a wound and had broken teeth.
A sheriff’s deputy testified in the April 2019 preliminary hearing that Dominguez said he didn’t like gay inmates. The deputy said Dominguez told him he did nothing wrong after the attack.
His attorney, Zaki Zehawi, said his client was on the Greyhound bus to go to Los Angeles so he could enter a treatment program.
At a previous hearing, Dominguez’s brother said he had a deeply troubled childhood after their father was murdered in 1990. He said their mother was a heroin addict and “we were doomed from the start.”
Others testified Dominguez deserved another chance, with one person saying, “he’s not your average felon.”
Dominguez received nine years for the Greyhound bus stabbing, three years for the jail attack, and Shamoon added five years for his previous conviction of carjacking.
Bowles asked for a maximum sentence of 21 years and Zehawi asked for a lesser term. An attempted murder charge was dismissed in the bus stabbing.
