Inset: Justin Thomas Bacon (Brown County Jail). Background: The Brown County Jail and Juvenile Detention Center in Green Bay, Wis. (Google Maps).
A Wisconsin man is in custody after police say he broke into a woman's house and stabbed her.
Justin Thomas Bacon, 30, is behind bars at the Brown County Jail after being charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide. According to the Green Bay Police Department, officers responded to a home in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Tuesday morning after receiving a call about a stabbing. When they arrived, they found an unnamed 39-year-old woman with a stab wound to the chest. Police learned that the suspect, later identified as Bacon, fled on a blue mountain bike.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by local ABC affiliate WBAY, Bacon allegedly stabbed the woman because he believed she was hurting her children.
Police said Bacon was at the home of the victim's neighbor, having a conversation in the garage. The neighbor told police that Bacon heard the victim yelling at one of her children, at which point Bacon allegedly walked over to the victim's home.
Local CBS affiliate WFRV reported that while Bacon was gone, the victim's neighbor and another witness heard the victim scream. Moments later, Bacon came out of the house and fled on a blue bike. Witnesses went to the victim's house, where they found her with a stab wound to the chest. She was taken to the hospital for medical treatment and survived.
When police arrived at the scene, the victim told them that Bacon allegedly said, "You're gonna die, you're already dead." During Bacon's initial appearance in court on Thursday, the victim recounted what happened, saying, "This man is dangerous. I didn't even realize he was stabbing me until he stabbed me the fourth or fifth time on the right. My children watched me bleed out. He kept saying, 'Die, b—, die. You're dead now. You're dying now.' He wanted me to die."
According to the complaint, Bacon allegedly accused the victim of hurting her children.
Bacon was tracked down by police about an hour after the alleged attack. He was allegedly found with clothing that had blood on it. Police believed he may have jumped in a river to hide.
Police said Bacon denied any knowledge of the stabbing and denied knowing the victim.
Witnesses including the person Bacon was visiting on Tuesday morning told police that Bacon had recently been released from prison. During Thursday's court appearance, Assistant District Attorney for Brown County Amy Pautzke noted that Bacon had been incarcerated up until three weeks ago, when he finished his sentence for a 2021 incident in which he struck his stepfather in the head 12 times with a baseball bat. Bacon pleaded no contest to recklessly endangering safety in that case.
Bacon was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide with modifiers for the use of a dangerous weapon and being a repeat offender. He was also charged with burglary. He remains in custody at the Brown County Jail, where he is being held on $750,000 cash bond. His next court date is scheduled for July 2.