Quick thinking by a Morgan Hill woman may have saved her life
when her husband allegedly attempted to stab her in the chest after
a drinking spree with friends before dawn Saturday.
Morgan Hill
Quick thinking by a Morgan Hill woman may have saved her life when her husband allegedly attempted to stab her in the chest after a drinking spree with friends before dawn Saturday.
Margarito Gallardo, 38, of Morgan Hill, was booked into Santa Clara County Jail on charges of attempted murder, spousal abuse, criminal threats and kidnapping, according to Morgan Hill police Cmdr. David Swing.
The 33-year-old victim received treatment at Saint Louise Regional Hospital for a severe cut on her hand, which required approximately 20 sutures to close. She was able to grab the serrated-blade utility kitchen knife away from her husband as he tried to plunge it into her chest, but as she did so, the knife sliced open her hand, according to police.
She was also treated for a black eye, numerous bruises and a swollen face and later released from the hospital.
Swing said the incident started at approximately 4 a.m. on Saturday. Gallardo had been drinking with friends at his residence on Longview Drive earlier in the evening, and when the friends left, his wife asked Gallardo to be quiet so she could sleep. He did not like her request and got extremely angry, pulling her out of bed by the hair.
After he allegedly hit her in the face with his fist several times, Gallardo’s wife pulled away from him and ran into the bathroom with her cell phone. Swing said this made Gallardo even angrier, and he yelled for her to let him in, also demanding to know who she was calling. He told her he would kill her if she called the police.
Using a kitchen chair, Gallardo broke into the bathroom and dragged his wife into the kitchen, where he grabbed a knife. Swing said Gallardo straddled his wife as he attempted to stab her in the chest. As she deflected the blows with her hand, she managed to wrench the knife away from Gallardo and slide it under the stove out of reach. She told him she had called police and they were on their way, so he got up to look for them.
Grabbing her shoes, the victim fled from the residence and flagged down a bread delivery truck.
The driver took her to her sister’s house, and her sister drove her to the hospital for treatment. After the hospital notified police, officer Brandon Richards arrived at approximately 4:30 a.m. to interview the victim, Swing said.
After staking out Gallardo’s residence on Longview Drive, officers saw him inside. But once they knocked on the door, he turned off the lights and refused to open the door to them. When they forced the door open, they found him hiding near the front door and arrested him without incident.
Morgan Hill’s last attempted murder also involved drinking and apparently began as a result of an argument about World Cup Soccer.
On June 25, 2006, David L. Cortez was arrested after he badly beat and then stabbed Juan P. Chapa in a vacant lot near a Chinese restaurant on Monterey Road.
At the time, Morgan Hill police Cmdr. Joe Sampson said Cortez was charged with attempted murder because of the “violent nature of the assault and the potential for death caused by head injury and a lengthy beating.”
Anyone with information about the attempted murder is asked to contact detective Kevin Beilmann at (408) 776-7323.
