Cape woman stabbed during a fight

A Cape Girardeau woman was hospitalized after being stabbed in the back and hand during a fight Friday.

Cape Girardeau police talked to a woman at the Southeast Hospital emergency room, where she was being treated for a deep cut on her left hand and a wound to her lower back that required stitches, according to a probable-cause statement filed by detective Joe Thomas.

Officers also reported seeing a cut and bruise on the woman’s left leg and bite mark on her right elbow. The woman also said the tendons in her cut left hand were severed.

The woman told police she had been with longtime acquaintance Chassidy Tenille Valenti, 33, of Cape Girardeau, all day before she dropped off Valenti at 7 p.m. at an apartment in the 2500 block of Lisa Drive.

When the woman returned to pick up Valenti, an argument began, and Valenti punched her in the mouth, the woman told police.

“She said, at some point, Valenti pulled a fold-out pocket knife in her right hand and she also had what looked like a machete in her left hand,” Thomas wrote.

The woman said Valenti cut her leg and hand and stabbed her in the back. One of the other tenants in the apartment complex drove her to the hospital, according to the statement.

Two male witnesses, one who was a resident of the apartment, saw the fight.

The first witness videotaped a part of the fight. The video showed Valenti sitting on the couch, facing the back of the woman while holding on to the woman’s hair, according to the statement. They were yelling at each other and began to kick and hit each other, Thomas wrote.

The second witness said the woman threw the first punch, hitting Valenti in the face.

“He said he did not see who pulled out a knife but thought (the woman) brought one in, but also said he knows Valenti always carries one on her,” Thomas wrote

Valenti was taken into custody Saturday. Valenti told police the woman began the fight by punching her and said the woman brought the knife.

“She said she never stabbed (the woman),” Thomas wrote. “She said at one point she may have taken the knife away from (the woman), but she did not stab her with it. She said the only place (the woman) was bleeding when the fight was over was from her hand, and insinuated that if (the woman) had a stab wound to her back that (she) did it herself to make it look worse.”

Valenti was charged with felony first-degree assault. An arrest warrant for Valenti was filed Sunday.

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address:

2500 block of Lisa Drive, Cape Girardeau, Mo.