San Angelo Man to go Before Court for Third Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon Charge

A San Angelo man, Elias Bihl, 39, is scheduled to go before the 340th District Court this afternoon for his now third charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly striking and stabbing his roommate, Rigoberto Rivera on May 11, 2013.

According to reports filed at the courthouse, Bihl and Rivera had been drinking and snorting cocaine at their residence in the 1600 block of Juanita Ave on May 11, 2013, when Bihl began to hallucinate and became agitated.

The peace officer’s report states that Rivera said Bihl then retrieved a 9mm handgun and began to strike him in the head several times, causing pain swelling and lacerations. He then retrieved a folding knife and repeatedly stabbed Rivera in the right arm, the report says.

Rivera said he then pretended to be dead and Bihl left the room, thus making his escape possible. He said he then climbed out of a back window and fled to a neighbor’s home to call police.

Officer Charles Barker located Bihl about three blocks away from his residence after having crashed his car. The report states that Bihl’s clothes and vehicle had blood stains that were not consistent with the injuries he sustained in the crash.

On Jan. 30, 2013, Bihl was convicted on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm when a juried court found him guilty of shooting Henry Fitchett Jr. and Armando Juarez. He was sentenced to 25 years of confinement and all three charges are currently under appeal.

On March 5, 2014, Assistant District Attorney Jason Ferguson filed a motion to cumulate the sentence for his current charge, meaning that if found guilty, Bihl would serve his sentence for this charge after he has served the 25 years he was sentenced to for the previous two convictions.

Bihl’s criminal history will be reviewed in court Monday afternoon, and includes the two previous aggravated assault charges in Tom Green County, an unlawful possession of a firearm charge from that same incident, and several other convictions dating back as far as 1994 for marijuana, forgery and other charges.