Charges: Police Find Man Found Holding Intestines After Wife Cut Him
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Deputies responding to an incident in Little Canada found a man holding some of his own intestines after his wife allegedly stabbed him for not answering her calls, according to charges filed in Ramsey County.
Denea Chiquita Griffo, 39, of Little Canada, faces one felony charge of first-degree assault in connection to the Jan. 1, 2018 incident.
According to the criminal complaint, Griffo suspected her husband, a 35-year-old man, of cheating on her after he didn't answer multiple calls from her. She began arguing with him at their residence once he came home.
Griffo later told police that they argued for only approximately three minutes before her husband punched her. That's when she said she "blacked out" and must have stabbed him with a sharp knife, the complaint said.
Deputies initially encountered the victim alone in the parking lot. He was holding his abdomen, and when deputies got closer, they saw he was holding some of his own intestines in his hand. Deputies applied gauze and assisted the victim by applying pressure to the wound until an ambulance arrived and took him to the Regions Emergency room.
Medical staff reported that the victim suffered "great bodily harm" and suffered a "significant small bowel evisceration" through the opening caused by the stabbing.
The victim told police that Griffo argued with him and hit him in the head when he returned home. In response, the victim pushed her onto the bed and she claimed he touched her eye. She then allegedly said she was through with him, went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife.
Despite the victim telling her to put it down, the victim said she swung the sharp knife twice at his throat and he dodged it. She swung the knife again and cut his abdomen open. She was going to swing the knife again, but they saw that his intestines were already coming out. He then ran downstairs, holding his intestines in one hand and his phone in the other. He then called 911.
In a later Mirandized interview, Griffo said when she called the victim, she thought she heard a female's voice and believed he was being unfaithful to her. She said he hit her face with his hand or fist, and that she blacked out. She said she must have stabbed him, but that she didn't remember, the complaint said.
Griffo also said the substance deputies believed was blood on her white shirt was actually from Doritos she had been eating. She said she was eating Doritos because her stomach was upset.
If convicted, Griffo could face up to 20 years in prison and/or a $30,000 fine.
