This article was originally published in The Examiner on Nov. 16, 2017.
By Eleanor Skelton
Staff Writer
A man from Pasadena was indicted by a Jefferson County Grand Jury Nov. 15 for aggravated assault.
Mateo Dedios, 51, is accused of pushing his wife out of a car while they were driving Oct. 26, according to court documents.
Jefferson County Dispatch received three 911 calls around 2:29 pm. on Oct. 26 from witnesses who said they saw a woman fall from a moving car near mile marker 833 on I-10 eastbound, according to the probable cause affidavit for Dedios’ arrest.
Deputies arrived on scene at 2:33 p.m. and could not locate the woman.
Around 10 p.m. that night, Jefferson County Dispatch received a phone call from a hospital in Webster treating a woman in intensive care who told hospital staff she jumped from the car while her husband was driving.
The hospital told police that she had multiple skull fractures.
Investigators interviewed both the accused and witnesses over a three-day period, which led them to believe that Dedios knocked his wife unconscious and then pushed her out of the car while traveling between 30 and 40 mph.
The victim told detectives that she only remembers her husband unbuckling her seatbelt and hitting her, and she would never jump from a moving car.
She said that she first told hospital staff and the detective that she jumped out of fear that her husband would retaliate if charges were filed against him.
Eleanor Skelton 