Victim: Woman stabbed her in back with knife, severed tendons with lawn-mower blade

The victim instigated a fight, but a Cape Girardeau defendant escalated the altercation by grabbing a knife from her purse, according to the victim’s testimony during a court hearing Wednesday.

Judge Gary Kamp ruled there was sufficient probable cause to bound over Chassidy T. Valenti, 34, for an arraignment hearing at 9 a.m. July 18.

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney’s office charged Valenti with first-degree assault April 17.

The victim described Valenti as an acquaintance and said she was driving Valenti around April 15, eventually dropping off Valenti at an apartment in the 2500 block of Lisa Drive between noon and 1 p.m.

She said Valenti left obnoxious voice messages with her mother and husband. She could not remember exactly what Valenti said, except the victim had left her in a place that made her uncomfortable.

There were two men inside the apartment who saw the confrontation between Valenti and the victim, according to a probable-cause statement filed by Cape Girardeau police detective Joe Thomas.

The victim went back to the apartment about 3 p.m. and told Valenti she was angry because of the messages Valenti had left her mother and husband, the victim said.

The victim said Valenti jumped off the couch, cursed her and punched the victim in the face. The victim said she punched Valenti back, then got on top of Valenti during the fight.

“As I was leaving, she stabbed me in the back with a pocket knife,” the victim said.

The victim turned and saw Valenti with a pocket knife in her right hand a 10-inch lawn-mower blade in her left hand, she said. Valenti sliced the victim in her left leg, midway up her thigh — a wound the victim said was superficial.

Valenti brought the lawn-mower blade up and sliced down on the victim’s left hand, severing tendons and nerves.

She said the wound in her back was 2 inches deep. The wounds to her back and hand required stitches, the victim said.

A resident of the apartment broke up the fight and drove the victim to the hospital, the victim said.

The victim said Valenti pulled a knife from her purse as they were fighting on the sectional couch in the apartment.

“She showed it to me the day before,” the victim said of the knife.

She said she thought Valenti pulled the lawn-mower blade off the coffee or kitchen table inside the apartment, she said.

The resident of the apartment filmed part of the altercation between Valenti and the victim, according to the statement. The video showed Valenti sitting on the couch and pulling the victim’s hair, Thomas wrote.

A male friend of the resident said the victim threw the first punch, according to the statement. He said he thought the fight lasted several minutes until he and the resident saw blood and broke up the fight, Thomas wrote.

Neither the resident nor his friend testified Wednesday.

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address:

2500 block of Lisa Drive, Cape Girardeau, Mo.