NASHUA – Hector Rodriguez didn’t like Jesus “Stretch” Cortes, a youth slightly older than him whose nickname reflected his wiry, 6’6” frame, a witness testified in court on Wednesday.

Cortes had assaulted Rodriguez, giving him a black eye, when both were being held at a youth detention center in Manchester, said a staff member from the center, Eric Skillings. He was on the witness stand in the second day of Rodriguez’s trial on assault and burglary charges in Hillsborough County Superior Court.

“They had issues outside of the program as well as inside the program … They just did not get along very well,” Skillings said.

In fact, months before Rodriguez was released from the detection center, he told Skillings that he and his brother, Anthony Serrano, were going to have “some kind of retaliation” against Cortes, Skillings testified.

Prosecutors say Rodriguez had retaliation on his mind when he, Serrano, and other individuals went to what they believed to be Cortes’ Ledge Street apartment on the night of Jan. 2.

But they had the wrong address. A stranger, Max Russo, answered the door and was smacked in the head with a wooden bat, stabbed twice and kicked while he was on the ground, prosecutors say.

Russo survived the attack.

Rodriguez’s attorney, Charles F. O’Leary, doesn’t deny the assault occurred. He is basing his client’s defense on the claim that Rodriguez believed he and his friends were going to the apartment only to have words with Cortes and to tell him to leave Rodriquez alone. O’Leary argues that Rodriguez, 17, didn’t know an assault was going to happen and had lagged behind the other men when they approached the door.

There is no way Rodriguez could have mistaken Russo for Cortes, O’Leary contends.

Cortes clearly appears to be Hispanic, Skillings said. Russo, on the other hand, was described by a neighbor during the first day of the trial as a burly Jamaican with a dark complexion who stood an inch or two under 6 feet and weighed approximately 250 pounds – a man who would not invite the nickname “Stretch.”

As Serrano and the other men were assaulting Russo, they realized their mistake, cursed and fled the building, according to the victim.

O’Leary said Rodriguez was not in the group assaulting Russo.

Under interrogation by police two days after the attack, Rodriguez admitted he and his friends had planned to assault Cortes that night, Detective Daniel Mederos testified Wednesday.

Mederos testified that Rodriguez at first denied he was at the Ledge Street apartment, but later admitted he was there but stood near the fire door between the second-floor hallway and Russo’s apartment door.

“Throughout the whole interview he wasn’t too forthcoming,” Mederos said. “Slowly, he gave us some information about what occurred.”

The trial is scheduled to continue Thursday.

One of the 14 jurors was excused Wednesday by Judge Jacalyn Colburn because of a family emergency. That leaves a panel of eight women and five men.

One of the remaining 13 jurors will be named an alternate at the conclusion of the trial and will not participate in deliberations.

Patrick Meighan can be reached at 594-6518 or pmeighan@nashuatelegraph.com.