A 19-year-old woman from Florida is facing multiple felonies after allegedly attacking her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend. Emily Morales reportedly showed up unannounced at her former beau’s home and stabbed the victim in the chest with a pocket knife, leaving her hospitalized.
Last week, Morales was arrested and charged with aggravated battery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to authorities.
On July 31, 2024, around 9 p.m., deputies and emergency medical personnel responded to a stabbing report at a residence on Maderia Street in Spring Hill, approximately 80 miles west of Orlando. They found a 22-year-old woman with a stab wound. She was rushed to Bayonet Point Hospital and underwent emergency surgery for her critical condition.
The victim’s 26-year-old boyfriend told police that he and the victim were at his mother’s house when they heard a loud knock at the door. Looking through the frosted glass, he saw Morales’s silhouette. He went to check with his mother while the victim answered the door. The boyfriend then heard screaming and the victim exclaiming, “This f—— dumb b—- stabbed me.”
After the attack, Morales allegedly tried to stab the boyfriend before fleeing on foot. The incident was captured on a doorbell camera, though the footage is not very clear. It showed a commotion at the door and then the victim collapsing in the living room, bleeding from her chest. Morales appeared to be holding a knife in the footage.
The boyfriend’s mother, who was in her bedroom, heard her son say not to worry as he had the situation under control. When she went to check, she found Morales acting irrationally and yelling in the doorway.
A trail of blood led from the front door to the back of the living room where it pooled. Deputies found Morales at her last known address and arrested her. Her family questioned the arrest, claiming she acted in self-defense.
In an interview with detectives, Morales said she and the victim’s boyfriend had an on-and-off relationship and had argued earlier that day. She claimed the boyfriend had threatened to have the victim attack her. Morales went to the boyfriend’s home for closure, observed the victim’s car, and knocked on the door.
Morales admitted to becoming verbally aggressive when the victim answered. She said the victim squared up, prompting her to pull out a folding knife and swing it at the victim, though she wasn’t sure where she struck. Morales fled, discarding the knife in a junk-strewn yard.
Morales is now being held without bond at Hernando County Jail.
