Woman pleads not guilty in stabbing death in domestic homicide

RACINE — A woman arrested for allegedly stabbing her partner was in Racine County Circuit Court on Wednesday for arraignment.

Adela Gomez Zuniga, 27, pleaded not guilty to first-degree intentional homicide in the stabbing death of her partner, who has not been identified.

Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz will preside over the case. A bond hearing was set for 9:15 a.m. July 31.

Gomez Zuniga is seeking clarity from the court on the issue of communicating with her children, which she has been prohibited from doing.

Domestic homicide case history

Racine Police Department officers were dispatched to the 900 block of Walnut Street on June 10 on a report there was a man down who had either been shot or stabbed.

According to the criminal complaint, when officers arrived they found the man lying on the sidewalk with Gomez Zuniga lying next to him. She was crying and had blood on her clothes.

She allegedly said, “I stabbed him.”

A witness told police the two had been involved in a loud domestic dispute for 15 or 20 minutes prior to the stabbing, according to the criminal complaint.

From the criminal complaint: man stabbed during dispute

• The defendant told investigators the two had been drinking and that she had not taken her prescription of Zoloft that day.
• She said the argument started because her partner accused her of cheating. She told him to get his belongings and go. The two began pushing and punching each other.
• The victim decided to go, according to Gomez Zuniga, and went into the basement to collect $400 the two had stashed there. While he was in the basement, she took a 10-inch butcher knife from the sink.
• When he saw the knife, the victim was alleged to have said, “You’re so f—— stupid. You’re not going to do sh–.”
• She told investigators at that point she stabbed him in the chest.
• The victim fled from the house. Gomez Zuniga said she followed and saw him in the driveway struggling to breathe and trying to call out for help.

During the course of the investigation, the knife was recovered from the home in what was described as the mud room, which had blood droplets on the floor and smears of blood on the walls and doors.

Gomez Zuniga allegedly told investigators that she stabbed the victim. In fact, while she was washing her hands, she was alleged to have said, “That bastard. I hope he dies.”

However, when she was told by investigators that he was dead, she allegedly responded, “I can’t believe (he’s) dead. That was never my intention.”

When asked what her intention had been, she replied, “I wanted him to get scared.”

Gomez Zuniga remains in custody at the Racine County Jail where bail is set at $500,000.