Tribune-Star staff report
TERRE HAUTE —
Terre Haute police believe an early Sunday stabbing and a separate residential entry incident are related after arresting one man on a charge of burglary, criminal confinement and battery.
Robert W. Lewis III, 25, appeared in Vigo Superior Court 3 on Monday where Judge David Bolk found probable cause for his arrest.
Detective Scott Funkhouser reported that police were called to the area of 17th and Park Streets about 3:30 a.m. Sunday to investigate a reported stabbing. They found an injured man who was later transferred to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis in critical condition.
While police were investigating the stabbing, they also learned that a nearby residence had been burglarized. A woman residing in the 800 block of South 17th Street reported that she was awakened by her 8-year-old child screaming. Funkhouser said that when the woman went to her child’s bedroom, the woman saw a stranger in the apartment. The woman grabbed her child and together they fled the residence, and used a phone to call for help. The man inside the second-story apartment apparently fled through the child’s bedroom window, police reported.
When police arrived at the scene of the burglary, they found that the apartment’s front door had been kicked in. A shoe print remained visible on the door. The woman described the burglary suspect as a white male without a shirt, having multiple tattoos on his torso.
Police found that the stabbing victim also was not wearing a shirt, and had multiple tattooes on his torso. However, he was not the man who had broken into the apartment.
A woman with the man who was stabbed told police she and the stabbing victim had been at a party with Lewis when they noticed Lewis had left the party. They were searching for him in the area of the burglary when two black males allegedly attacked and stabbed the victim.
Later, Funkhouser said, Lewis’s father found him with an injured foot in the area of 17th and Crawford streets, a short distance from the apartment that had been broken into. Police checked the tread from Lewis’ shoe and found that it matched the print on the apartment door.
When questioned, Funkhouser said, Lewis admitted to being highly intoxicated when he climbed out the apartment window and hurt his foot in the fall from the second floor.
Funkhouse said Lewis lives in the 800 block of South 19th Street, and it’s possible that he may have mistaken the residence two blocks away on South 17th Street as his own residence.
Formal charges in the case are to be filed Thursday.
Bail was set at $25,000 with no 10 percent allowed.
