Contributed Photo/Courtesy GCSO: Carlos Lujan, 46, has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault regarding a Sept. 30 stabbing in a cotton field behind the Dollar General in Pima.
By Jon Johnson
PIMA – The suspect of a brutal stabbing that occurred in a cotton field behind the Dollar General off 100 North in Pima on Sept. 30 has been bound over to Superior Court.
According to Graham County Sheriff’s Office reports, the victim utilized a second, government-issued flip cell phone to call 9-1-1 while lying on the ground after being brutally stabbed in the abdomen and arms, saving himself from likely death by his attacker.
Carlos Lujan Jr., 46, has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon regarding the attack. Lujan allegedly stabbed the victim, Francisco Navarro, seven times before leaving him for dead. On Wednesday, his case was bound over from the Justice Court to Graham County Superior Court. He remains incarcerated on a $500,000 bond.
Navarro was initially treated by a Pima Police officer and was then taken by ambulance the night of the attack to Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center for treatment of his wounds.
Authorities responded to the scene just north of Center Street at about 6:35 p.m. on Sept. 30 and located Navarro. After he was tended to by the Pima Police officer and EMS, authorities followed the victim’s blood trail and footprints to the initial location of the attack in the field and then followed the tracks to an abandoned barn-style house. There, authorities located Lujan and his girlfriend – both of whom showed signs of intoxication.
Lujan refused to answer questions from authorities, but his girlfriend asked to speak to Pima Police Chief Diane Cauthen privately and then advised Lujan had stabbed Navarro and then hid the evidence.
The female witness said Lujan asked her to take Navarro with her to purchase beer at the Dollar General store and while en route Lujan attacked Navarro from behind and “shanked” him by stabbing him multiple times.
She said Lujan then gave her the knife and told her to cut Navarro’s throat to “finish him off.”
Lujan and the witness then left the area and Lujan asked her to help hide evidence of the attack, according to her statements to the police. Lujan reportedly changed his clothes and the witness said she helped bury Lujan’s cap, shirt, and Navarro’s cell phone, as well as the knife used in the attack. Officers later recovered all of the buried items linked to the attack.
The witness said Lujan then asked her if she knew anyone who could help them transport Navarro’s body to Frye Mesa to dispose of him, but she told Lujan that Navarro wasn’t dead.
And he had a second, emergency flip-phone that didn’t have service but could still make 9-1-1 calls. Navarro called for help, and Pima Police were first on the scene, followed by deputies with the Sheriff’s Office and EMS.
Officers located the buried items in the farm field roughly 80 to 100 yards northeast of the end of 100 North where the witness said she hid them. Tracks from Lujan and the female witness were also present in the area.
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