Inset: Emily Morales (Hernando County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The home where Morales allegedly stabbed her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend (Google Maps).
A 19-year-old woman in Florida is facing multiple felonies after she allegedly hospitalized her former beau’s new girlfriend, showing up at the boyfriend’s home unannounced and stabbing the victim in the chest with a pocket knife.
Emily Morales was taken into custody last week and charged with one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, authorities announced.
According to a news release from the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, deputies and emergency medical personnel at about 9 p.m. on July 31, 2024, responded to a home in the 10000 block of Maderia Street in Spring Hill in reference to a reported stabbing. The home is about 80 miles west of Orlando, Florida.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders located a 22-year-old female bleeding from what appeared to be a stab wound. Medics immediately transported the victim to Bayonet Point Hospital. Authorities said she was “considered to be in critical condition with two stab wounds” and immediately underwent emergency surgery.
Police located the victim’s 26-year-old boyfriend who explained that he and the victim were in a relationship and the two were “hanging out” in the kitchen at his mother’s home where he also resides when he heard a “loud knock” on the front door. He looked through the frosted glass and was able to see “the silhouette” of Morales, his ex-girlfriend.
“[The boyfriend] advised that he went to address his mother who he knew would be upset with the presence of Emily [Morales], while [the victim] simultaneously answered the door,” the affidavit states. “[The boyfriend] advised that he heard a screaming and a commotion and then heard [the victim] say ‘this f—— dumb b—- stabbed me.’”
After the alleged surprise knife attack, Morales allegedly attempted to stab the boyfriend before fleeing on foot.
The attack was captured on a doorbell surveillance camera in the home, though the footage is not particularly clear. Police said the footage showed a “commotion” at the front door between the two women, then skips forward to when the victim can be seen “collapsing in the living room” and “bleeding from her chest.”
Morales appeared to be holding a knife in the footage, authorities said.
The boyfriend’s mother was in her bedroom when her son approached her and “told her not to worry” because “he had the situation under control.” She then heard the victim “yelling for her,” saying “she stabbed me,” per the affidavit. When the mother went to see what was going on, she saw the Morales “standing in the doorway yelling and acting irrational.”
Police said there was a trail of blood leading from the front door to the back of the living room where the blood had pooled.
Deputies responded to Morales’ last known address where they located her and took her into custody. Members of Morales’ family were present and “began to question her arrest,” claiming that Morales was “acting in ‘self-defense,’” the affidavit states.
In an interview with detectives, Morales said she and the victim’s boyfriend had been in an “ongoing on and off relationship” and that they had gotten into an argument earlier in the day. She also claimed that the boyfriend had previously threatened to have the victim “beat her up.” Morales said she went to the boyfriend’s home seeking “closure” from their earlier fight.
Morales said she took an Uber to the boyfriend’s home where she observed the victim’s vehicle in the driveway before she knocked on the door
“[Morales] was greeted by [the victim] at the front door, where she admitted she became verbally aggressive towards [the victim],” the affidavit states. “[Morales] explained that Sydney then ‘squared-up’ at which time [Morales] retrieved a folding knife from her pocket and swung it at [the victim] striking her with it. [Morales] explained that she was unsure of where she hit [the victim] with the knife; however, believed it to have been her lower abdomen based on the way that [the victim] was holding herself.”
Morales said she fled the scene, running through backyards and tossing the knife into an unknown yard that was “scattered with junk.”
She was arrested and transported to the Hernando County Jail where she is currently being held without bond.
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