Imagine being jolted awake by someone screaming. At first you think it’s your roommate. Then you realize the voice is a stranger’s.
That’s what happened at about 8 a.m. on August 15 when Mike Wisdom found an unhinged man inside his North Plymouth home.
A vicious assault and struggle took place. After several minutes, Wisdom broke free and, covered in blood, raced to the fire station across the street.
Although the alleged assailant, Jose Juarez, was eventually arrested, he is now free, living in Plymouth — even though as of this week the police and the district attorney’s office didn’t seem to know his whereabouts.
Reached by phone, Juarez said he doesn’t remember what happened — only that he hadn’t slept for three days and was wandering the streets, hearing voices.
This is how Wisdom’s morning unfolded that day:
After he got his bearings, he realized the intruder was terrifyingly close, in the hallway just outside of his second-floor bedroom.
The man was shouting, “Come out. I know you’re in there,” Wisdom recounted.
The 37-year-old chef – who has worked at some of Plymouth’s top restaurants and recently bought The Edge pizza shop on Main Street – emerged from his room and tried to reason with the intruder.
“I don’t know you,” Wisdom told him. “I think you’re in the wrong house.”
But Juarez came at him, saying, “Jesus wants to talk to you,” according to Wisdom.
Juarez then slammed Wisdom into a wall and tried to tackle him, he said. During their scuffle, he allegedly picked up an end table from the bedroom and struck Wisdom in the back with it.
Wisdom grabbed a hammer that he had used to hang a painting but forgot to put away.
“I hit him with it two or three times,” he said.
But Juarez kept lunging at him. He wouldn’t stop swinging and trying to tackle him, Wisdom said.
Wisdom was able to push him to the floor five or six times, striking him with the hammer “but he would just pop right back up like a zombie,” he told the Plymouth Independent.
Though at 225 pounds, Wisdom is much heavier than his 135-pound attacker, Juarez wouldn’t back down, Wisdom said.
When he realized the assault was probably not ending any time soon, Wisdom kicked Juarez in the face, grabbed his phone and ran across the street to the North Plymouth fire station. He tried to call police along the way but couldn’t because his phone was soaked in blood.
The stranger was giving chase, wielding a skateboard he grabbed from Wisdom’s house.
Firefighters separated the men, putting an end to the mayhem.
“I was covered head to toe in this guy’s blood,” Wisdom said.
Police arrived quickly, as did ambulances. Wisdom said the firefighters and police officers were supportive and helped him calm down.
An officer tried to speak to Juarez but, according to a police report, he was making “nonsensical statements about Jesus.”
He was taken to South Shore Hospital in Weymouth. Wisdom went to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth, where he complained of pain in his finger, hand and back. X-rays came back negative for broken bones, but Wisdom said his finger and heel still hurt.
After Juarez was discharged from the hospital, he was brought to the Plymouth police station, where he was booked and placed in a cell.
But he refused to speak to officers and allegedly got into an “altercation” with one of them, an officer who was handing him water through a cell window, the police report said.
Juarez allegedly grabbed his arm and pulled it through the window.
When officers visited Wisdom’s home, they found blood everywhere — on the walls, the ceiling and household items.
“A third of my room was covered in blood,” said Wisdom. “Not only am I traumatized but then I have to clean this dude’s blood off of everything. I was finding this dude’s blood for days.”
Wisdom theorized that the man entered the house when his roommate left for work in the morning and didn’t lock the front door. Why he chose Wisdom’s home remains a mystery.
Juarez, 38, was brought to Plymouth District Court on August 18 where he faced eight criminal charges, including breaking and entering, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery on a police officer.
The clerk released him on personal recognizance to be brought to BID-Plymouth for what is known as a Section 12 psychiatric evaluation.
Without further action, a patient or defendant can be held in a hospital for no more than 72 hours for such observation. It is unclear when Juarez was discharged or why the hospital or police didn’t arrange for him to be brought to court as he was leaving. A hospital spokeswoman said she couldn’t comment because of privacy laws.
Juarez was supposed to return to court for his arraignment on August 22, but he didn’t show up, according to court records. A warrant was issued for his arrest.
Since the incident, Wisdom said, he repeatedly contacted the police and the office of Plymouth County district attorney Timothy Cruz, trying to find out where Juarez was. He did not get an answer.
Plymouth police chief Dana Flynn told the Independent that after Juarez was released from police custody, he was sent by ambulance to BID-Plymouth.
“I have no further information on his whereabouts at this time,” he said in an email on Wednesday.
Juarez said he’s been home since being discharged from the hospital earlier this week.
He said he doesn’t remember anything that happened before waking up in South Shore Hospital, where he underwent surgery for head injuries caused by the hammer blows. (It’s unclear whether he was operated on before or after his stay at BID-Plymouth.)
The Guatamala native said he didn’t know he was supposed to appear in court because his phone was taken from him when he was in the hospital.
Juarez said he had been suffering from severe insomnia, unable to sleep for 72 hours. Also, he didn’t have his medication, he said, though he didn’t specify what type of medicine he was taking.
“Then I start to hear voices,” he said. “I started walking in the streets and hearing voices.”
He says he wants to clear up the warrant and get a lawyer, but he’s working locally as a painter and needs money to pay rent. He said he will go to court or police headquarters when he is able to take time off from his job, though his injuries are affecting his ability to work.
“I don’t want to be in trouble,” he said.
For Wisdom, knowing his alleged assailant is free and in Plymouth isn’t helping him recover from the harrowing ordeal. Especially since police seemingly lost track of Juarez.
“The first night, I slept on my couch with a sword and a hammer,” he said. “I should feel safer now, but I don’t.”
He said a family with three young girls lives next door.
“I’m not happy that this happened to me,” he said, “but who knows what would have happened if he had walked into that house?
He is even thinking about getting a license to carry a gun.
“I think it would be a good idea,” Wisdom said.
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org.