Cota gets 180 days for trying to stab neighbor

A man who tried to stab his neighbor last year will serve 180 days behind bars.

The defendant, Jesus A. Cota, 30, entered guilty pleas before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to charges of aggravated assault, vandalism and resisting arrest. He was directed to serve 180 days of a two-year sentence, with the balance of his sentence to be spent on probation once he completes his jail time.

Cota is charged for an incident last summer at Skyline Apartments in which he stuck a knife through a window of a neighbor’s apartment during an argument.

Witnesses say Cota pulled a knife and chased his neighbor into an apartment. When the man did not come back out, witnesses say Cota stabbed the knife through the man’s front window, narrowly missing two small children who were looking out the window. Cota suffered a severe gash to his arm from the broken glass and was being treated by ambulance personnel when police say he ran away and began running back toward his neighbor’s apartment.

During a subsequent preliminary hearing, Cota told the court he was not running back toward his neighbor when he broke loose from police, but instead he was running to aid his mother who, overcome by the excitement she had witnessed, had collapsed and was being attended to by emergency services.

It was not revealed what provoked Cota into the rage which prompted him to get a knife and go after his neighbor. However, the court has warned him not to go back around the Skyline area, either while he was free on bond or while he is on his probationary period.