Staff Report

Rico Antonio Valdez

WARSAW — A Warsaw man was recently arrested after allegedly injuring a man with a knife and forcing a woman to drive them somewhere against her will.

Rico Antonio Valdez, 29, 1692 E. 200N Lot 147, Warsaw, is charged with confinement, a level 2 felony; confinement, a level 3 felony; battery with a deadly weapon and two counts of intimidation with a deadly weapon, all level 5 felonies; battery resulting in moderate bodily injury, a level 6 felony; and interference with the reporting of a crime, a class A misdemeanor.

On Aug. 13, several Warsaw Police officers, with the assistance of a Winona Lake Police officer, responded to a battery incident in Warsaw. Upon arrival at the scene, Warsaw officers spoke with a man who appeared visibly shaken and had blood on his neck.

According to court documents, the man said Valdez had cut him on his neck and arm with a knife. The man said he and a woman were inside a vehicle when Valdez approached them on foot while wielding a knife. Valdez held the knife to the man’s neck.

Valdez then turned his attention to the woman and went to her side of the vehicle, at which point the man got out of the vehicle. While outside of the vehicle, Valdez allegedly swung the knife at the man, cutting his arm. The man ran to his home while being chased by Valdez and yelled that he was going to call the police.

The man told officers he saw Valdez get into the woman’s vehicle, where he held the knife to the woman and appeared to tell her to drive away. During the confrontation, the man said Valdez told him multiple times that he was going to kill him. Valdez made these threats while he was armed with the knife.

The man said Valdez and the woman took off in the vehicle. He told officers that he believed they were heading to a local mobile home park. Officers found the vehicle and pulled its driver over as it was entering the mobile home park. Valdez, the woman, and a young child were all in the vehicle.

Valdez admitted to a prior occasion where he vandalized the woman’s vehicle to find out where the man lived. He told officers that he went to the man’s home because he was looking for the woman.

Valdez said he parked his vehicle at a local business and was walking to the man’s home when he saw the man sitting in the woman’s vehicle. When Valdez opened the passenger’s side door of the vehicle, he said the man immediately pulled out a knife from a sheath in his pocket.

Valdez told officers that he and the man wrestled for the knife, and that with the woman’s help, Valdez was able to take control of the knife. Valdez told officers her pulled the man from the vehicle when the man ran toward his home, saying he was going to retrieve something. Since Valdez believed the man was going to get a gun, he got in the vehicle and told the woman to leave.

Officers then spoke with the woman about the incident. The woman told officers that the knife used in the incident was in the vehicle. During the investigation, officers found the knife, which was a large, gray hunting knife with a serrated edge.

The woman said Valdez had been violent with her in the past and recalled an incident where Valdez found out where the man lived. In that incident, Valdez kicked in the door of the man’s neighbor’s home because he believed it was the man’s residence. The woman also said Valdez broke her vehicle’s windows during that incident.

In the Aug. 13 incident, the woman said she was talking with the man in a vehicle when Valdez ran up to them while allegedly in possession of a knife. Valdez opened the passenger’s side door of the vehicle and began sticking the pointed end of the knife into the man’s neck. The woman told officers that Valdez was making threats. As she prepared to call 911, Valdez pointed the knife at her and threatened her.

Valdez eventually pulled the man from the vehicle and hit him. Once the man left, the woman said Valdez got into her vehicle, pointed the knife at her, and ordered her to drive them from the scene. She also said Valdez told her to tell officers that the knife belonged to the man.

Later on in the investigation, officers found Valdez’s vehicle parked within walking distance of where the woman’s vehicle had been.

Valdez was booked in the Kosciusko County Jail on Aug. 13, with a $51,000 surety and cash bond.