RACINE, WI – A Racine man stands accused of first-degree reckless injury and first-degree endangering safety after he stabbed another man multiple times with a steak knife.
Edward Esposito, 42, of Racine, was charged by the Racine County District Attorney’s Office with first-degree reckless injury, use of a dangerous weapon, first-degree endangering safety, use of a dangerous weapon, and criminal damage to property, repeater, domestic abuse assessments. If convicted of all three charges, Esposito faces up to 61 years nine months in prison and/or fines up to $135,000.
According to the criminal complaint, the Racine Police were called to a home in the 1300 block of Maple Street at 1:43 a.m. Saturday for a report of a man who was stabbed multiple times and who had lost consciousness at his neighbor’s home.
The neighbor told police Esposito stabbed the man and he knocked on his door demanding to come into the house. When the neighbor saw that the man was bleeding, he let him in and called 911. The man was bleeding from his head, the side of his chest and left wrist. He then lost consciousness and fell to the kitchen floor.
The man was transported to Ascension-All Saints Hospital for treatment.
Other officers confronted Esposito at his residence. Covered in blood from head to foot, Esposito did not look as if he had any injuries. He told police “he was attacked, so he attacked back with a knife.”
Large amounts of blood were on the floor and walls of the apartment. A hammer was found.
Another witness told police he was sleeping in his room when Esposito started banging on the bedroom door and then kicked it open.
“I think I killed Manny,” Esposito said to the witness.
At the hospital, medical personnel told police that the man had wounds to his skull, wrist, chest, left eye and back.
The victim told police Esposito came downstairs and started pacing. He then came out of the kitchen with a large hammer and serrated knife. Esposito charged and swung the knife at him. Realizing that his head had been cut, the man saw blood and the two continued to fight.
“Esposito then continued to attack him with the knife,” the complaint reads. “(The victim) vaguely remembered getting up, leaving the residence and knocking on (the neighbor’s) door before losing consciousness.”
Esposito tells the story differently.
During an interview with police, he said the other two men were with him in the living room drinking beer. Hearing them talk about him, Esposito felt paranoid and he thought someone was going to jump him. So he barricaded himself in his room and heard alarms going off in his head. The victim grabbed him and they started fighting.
“(The victim) pulled out a steak knife and stabbed Esposito in the left thigh,” he said.
Grabbing the knife, Esposito said he stabbed the man “everywhere” and then he felt him “go limp on top of him and thought (he) was dead.”
Esposito panicked, went to the other witness’ room, and started banging on it. He then kicked in the door and told him “he thought he had killed someone,” the complaint reads.
Esposito is being held on a $50,000 cash bond. A preliminary hearing has been set for 8:30 a.m. July 17 in front of Racine Court Commissioner Alice Rudebusch.