MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. – A 21-year-old Fort Bragg woman who allegedly wielded an ax during a gang-related attack earlier this year has been ordered to stand trial in Mendocino County Superior Court on three felony assault and battery charges.

Maricruz Alvarez-Carrillo, 21, faces felony assault with a deadly weapon charges, and felony battery with serious injury for her role in an incident Jan. 28 in outside the C.V. Starr recreational center, according to a Tuesday report from Mendocino County District Attorney C. David Eyster's office.

Alvarez-Carillo is accused of taking the ax to Alissa Colberg, 19 at the time of the attack, who suffered chest and facial wounds, and a male juvenile from Fort Bragg.

Judge Clay Brennan found the ax attack was gang-related after hearing testimony from 13 witnesses following a two-day preliminary hearing last week, Eyster's office said.

Colberg was the main witness for prosecutors. She testified that around 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 28 she was walking to the dog park next to the Starr center when she saw Alvarez-Carillo chasing the male juvenile around a vehicle.

At first she thought the woman was attacking the male victim with a hammer, but she soon learned it was a hatchet. Colberg testified that she swung at Alvarez-Carillo with a dog chain in a bid to aid the boy, but she instead became the target of the ax attack.

Colberg ended up suffering a deep wound to her chest, and cuts on her face. All left disfiguring scars, Colberg testified.

Fort Bragg Police Officer Brian Clark testified that Alvarez-Carillo later claimed that “Northeners” gang members had surrounded her car with her baby in it and then smashed the windows.

Clark testified that the defendant said she got out of the car to confront Colberg “who had a chain.”

Tammie Lynn Garner, a neighbor who witnessed the incident, said she saw two females fighting and “one female had an ax and the other female had a belt or chain.” The hatchet was later found in the parking lot in front of the Starr center.

Alvarez-Carillo and defense witnesses contended that Colberg was the aggressor in the fight because she allegedly belongs to rival gang that has terrorized the Minnesota Avenue apartment complex where the father of Alvarez-Carillo’s child lives.

 

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