Riverdale man sent to prison for stabbing man 17 times to ‘end the threat’

OGDEN — A Riverdale man who pleaded guilty to a stabbing that left a man with 17 knife wounds to the face and neck has been sentenced to prison.

Michael Raymond Acevedo, 31, was initially charged with attempted murder, a first-degree felony, and possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, a class A misdemeanor. As part of a plea bargain, Acevedo pleaded guilty in May to a reduced charge of attempted aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, and the weapons charge was dismissed.

Second District Judge Jason Nelson sentenced Acevedo on June 24 to a term of one to 15 years in prison for the attack, to run concurrently with an unrelated domestic violence charge that happened around the same time.

Ogden police arrested Acevedo in October after they found a man critically injured in the area of 200 W. 33rd Street. Acevedo told police the injured man had been following him around a homeless shelter and Acevedo felt the need to “end the threat,” a police booking affidavit states.

Video footage from nearby surveillance cameras, referenced by court documents, show an argument between Acevedo and the victim escalate into pushing. The victim picks up a pair of vice-grips in the video, before Acevedo grabs him by the hoodie and stabs him in the face repeatedly.

Acevedo testified that the man had a gun and threatened to kill him, but court documents say the victim did not have a gun on at the time. In an interview, Acevedo told police “he ‘blacked out’ after the first time he stabbed the victim and didn’t remember how many times he stabbed him in total,” the affidavit says.

Investigators say Acevedo left the man “lying on the ground bleeding,” walked back toward the Lantern House homeless shelter, and called 911 to report the incident.