Man charged in robbery of taxi driver last week was out on bail

A 28-year-old man accused of assaulting androbbing a Yellowknife cab driverlast week had been released on bail five weeks earlier.

Last September police laid 12 charges against Isaias Antonio Aburto, including assaulting two women with weapons, forcible confinement and threatening to kill them. Aburto is also accused of prostituting out the same women.

At a bail hearing in November the prosecutor argued to keep Aburto in jail.

One of the women told police that in June,Aburto flew into a rage after accusing her of diluting his drugs. She said he held her down and punched her in the face and ribs. She said he threatened her with a knife, stabbed her in the leg with a pair of scissors, and threatened to cut her into pieces and send the parts to her mother.

A police search of his FranklinHouse Apartment on June 27provided some evidence to support her story. In court documents, police say they found the knife, scissors and blood-stained t-shirt she had described. They also seized a cutting board with a white powder on it.

Despite the prosecutor's arguments, Justice of the Peace Ian McCrae released Aburto on Nov. 5 on $500 bail. Under his release conditions, he was to observe an 8 p.m. curfew, abstain from drugs and alcohol and not have any contact with the women he's accused of attacking.

Police arrested Aburtoshortly after responding to a report of an assault and robbery of a taxi driver in a downtown alley last week.

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Aburto had been charged multiple times in the two years leading up to the alleged attacks on the women. Most of the charges, which included carrying a concealed weapon and making death threats, were either stayed or withdrawn.

Aburto remains in custody. He's scheduled to appear in court Jan. 2.