DeKalb man charged with attempted first-degree murder in stabbing

A DeKalb man was charged with attempted first-degree murder Thursday after DeKalb police allege he stabbed a man in the abdomen with a knife.

Wilson A. Cervantes-Garcia, 24, faces six to 30 years in prison if convicted of the Class X felony. The charge is not probational.

He also was charged with two counts of aggravated battery involving great bodily harm, a Class 3 felony that can carry two to five years in prison. Probation is an option if convicted only of battery.

A judge ordered Cervantes-Garcia be jailed pending trial during a hearing Thursday. Cervantes-Garcia did not have an attorney list as of Thursday morning. His next court date is set for 1:30 p.m. July 18.

DeKalb police were dispatched at 2:19 a.m. Thursday to the 400 block of North 11th Street for a domestic dispute, according to a synopsis filed in DeKalb County court.

There they found a man lying on a bed in the bedroom of the home, bleeding from his abdomen area, according to the synopsis. The man was “incoherent and had trouble communicating” with the officers.

He was taken to Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital where he was later flown to OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford in serious condition, DeKalb police said. Police later learned he had suffered a perforated bowel and needed surgery.

A roommate of Cervantes-Garcia told police that he saw Cervantes-Garcia and the man who was stabbed sitting at the kitchen table and drinking about midnight that day, according to the synopsis.

About an hour later, the roommate said he saw Cervantes-Garcia in the kitchen holding a knife. He did not see the man who was stabbed.

The roommate returned to his room and then saw Cervantes-Garcia again, still holding the knife but this time saying something like “I kill” in Spanish, according to court records. The roommate took the knife from Cervantes-Garcia and took it to his room.

Later, about 2 a.m., the roommate said he woke up to moaning and groaning, according to the synopsis. He got up and found the stabbed man on Cervantes-Garcia’s bed bleeding.

Cervantes-Garcia was gone from the home.

When Cervantes-Garcia returned to the home a short time later, officers spoke to him and he told them that the two had an altercation, according to the synopsis. Cervantes-Garcia told officers that the other man had the knife and had put it up to Cervantes-Garcia’s throat.

He then gave the officers two different explanations for the man’s wounds: He said he stabbed the man in self-defense but also said the man had stabbed himself, according to the synopsis.

In an interview at the police department, Cervantes-Garcia said he and the other man had an altercation about 11 p.m., during which he alleged the other man had thrown him to the ground and kicked him.

Cervantes-Garcia had a small cut to his neck and another to his side, according to the synopsis. He said he did not contact police after that fight because he did not know the police department’s number.

He told the detective that about an hour after that fight, he took a knife from the kitchen and went over to where the man was sleeping, stabbed him once and then hid the knife under his mattress, according to court records.

Cervantes-Garcia then left the home, traveled about two blocks and then decided to return to the home where he was met by officers, according to the synopsis.