MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Richard Spaulding told police officers that he had been in a romantic relationship with the man who accused him of stabbing him in the chest with a kitchen knife, according to the Miami Gardens Police Department.
The victim told police officers that he had lived with Spaulding, 56, but he was just a roommate and coworker who he and his parents had been helping for about 10 months, according to the police report in the case.
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The victim and Spaulding, a convicted felon with a long criminal record in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, told police they had fought before the stabbing on July 30, records show.
The victim reported Spaulding had used his credit card without permission at about 4 a.m., that Sunday, so the victim confronted him when he got home and asked him to move out, according to the police report.
The victim told detectives Spaulding choked him until he was nearly unconscious during a fight and left — only to return with the knife to stab him at about 8 a.m. while he was asleep, according to the report.
The victim’s mother told police she had found him injured at about 8:15 a.m., and Miami-Dade fire rescue personnel took him to Aventura Hospital where he had surgery, according to the report.
Spaulding fled the house, but officers arrested him on Monday close to the scene of the crime, near the intersection of Northwest 203 Street and 38 Place, in Miami Gardens, records show.
Miami-Dade corrections officers were holding Spaulding without bond on Tuesday evening at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, records show.
The Florida Department of Corrections released him from prison in 2001 after Spaulding served over two years in prison for a burglary in Broward County, state records show. For the stabbing on July 30 in Miami Gardens, Spaulding was facing a charge of attempted murder with a deadly weapon.
Detectives were asking anyone with information about the case to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.