NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) - A Virginia judge has thrown out a murder charge against a man accused of fatally stabbing a man in the back to stop him from suffocating a pregnant woman.
The Daily Press reports that General District Court Judge Robert Saunders in Newport News ruled there wasn’t sufficient cause to charge Carlos Rozada, 20, of Hampton, with second-degree murder.
Witnesses said Carlos Fontanez was squeezing the woman during an altercation inside a Denbigh apartment in September when Rozada, the woman’s brother-in-law, grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed Fontanez six times in the back.
Fontanez, who lived in the apartment, died at a hospital. The pregnant woman wasn’t seriously injured.
Defense attorney Scott Ehrenworth has said Rozada acted to protect the woman and her unborn child.
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