Skokie Stabbing Followed Dispute Over Truck Repairs: Prosecutors

SKOKIE, IL — A judge ordered an 18-year-old Skokie man held without bail after prosecutors said he repeatedly stabbed a friend during an argument about a truck last week.

Emmanuel Hernandez, 18, of the 4300 block of Oakton Street, was charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery in the stabbing of a 31-year-old man, found stabbed on a parkway outside Hernandez's home around 3 p.m. Thursday, according to Skokie police, who did not disclose his arrest until after a bond hearing Saturday.

At the hearing before Cook County Circuit Judge Susana Ortiz at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, prosecutors said Hernandez, his roommate and the victim had been working on a truck at his home when it began raining. The trio, who all work together, went inside, and the victim accused Hernandez of damaging the vehicle, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said the roommate demanded the two men leave, but the argument continued on the front steps. That's where Hernandez stabbed the man in the chest, chin and shoulder as he tried to walk down the stairs to leave, leaving him with lacerations to his liver that required surgery at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston.

Police found a gold blood-covered knife in a nearby lawn, and Hernandez's roommate told officers he usually carries a switchblade, prosecutors told Ortiz.

Prosecutors said Hernandez was sentenced to 11 months in juvenile detention last year after he was convicted of criminal sexual abuse.

Hernandez is due back in court on Tuesday in Skokie.