Fight over $75 leads to stabbing of friend, arrest in Collier (South West Florida)

By AISLING SWIFT
Originally published 5:22 p.m., Saturday, May 16, 2009
Updated 5:22 p.m., Saturday, May 16, 2009


Sergio Rolando Briones, stabbing arrest

GOLDEN GATE — A fight over a $75 debt earlier this month ended in a Golden Gate man being arrested and charged in a stabbing and his friend being flown to a hospital with a serious stomach injury.

Sergio Rolando Briones, 31, of 4429 Golden Gate Parkway, remained in the Collier County jail Saturday on a felony charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon while his friend, Elmer Contreras, was interviewed by authorities after he was released from Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers.

Briones is an illegal alien from Guatemala who faces a deportation hearing, reports say, and will be held pending trial in Collier Circuit Court.

Contreras was interviewed after his surgery and told Collier County deputies he was in his apartment May 7 at Whistler’s Cove with Briones and they began arguing over money Briones owed him.

They punched each other and Briones was knocked to the ground, reports say, but got up and lunged at Contreras with the knife portion of a Leatherman tool and missed, but stabbed him in the stomach on the second try.

Reports say Briones then moved toward another man in the apartment who witnessed the fight, Giovany Alvarez, who fled with Contreras as Briones pursued them into the apartment’s parking lot and shouted, “I’m going to kill you.â€