Scaffidi being held without bond in county jail
A 69-year-old Sarasota man has been arrested and charged with Aggravated Battery with a Deadly Weapon in connection with a March 17 stabbing at the Royal Palms Mobile Home Park on South Tamiami Trail in Sarasota, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office has reported.
Charles Scaffidi, of 8705 S. Tamiami Trail, Lot 108, is being held without bond in the Sarasota County Jail, his Sheriff’s Office Corrections Division booking report shows. During Scaffidi’s first appearance in court, on March 18, 12th Judicial Circuit Judge Thomas Krug agreed with a representative of the State Attorney’s Office for the 12th Judicial District that no bond should be set at that time, a court document notes.
Scaffidi’s arraignment was scheduled for April 17, but in a March 20 filing with the Circuit Court, Scaffidi’s attorney — Assistant Public Defender Richard Saul Rubin — wrote that Scaffidi had waived the arraignment and had entered a plea of “Not Guilty,” along with a demand for a jury trial.
The Probable Cause Affidavit in the case notes that the incident was reported just after 7 p.m. on March 17. The victim was identified as Suzette Tarice Scaffidi, that document says. However, the affidavit does not identify Tarice Scaffidi as Charles Scaffidi’s wife.
When deputies arrived on the scene, the affidavit continues, they found Tarice Scaffidi at a neighbor’s home “with lacerations on the front and back of her neck.” The affidavit says that the deputies were told that Scaffidi cut “Tarice Scaffidi’s throat with a knife during a verbal and physical altercation.”
The deputies were able to observe Charles Scaffidi inside his residence within the mobile home park, the affidavit continues. He was holding a knife and “making suicidal statements,” the affidavit points out.
The deputies communicated with him, the affidavit says, and they “attempted to get him to exit the residence.” He finally did so, still holding the knife, the affidavit adds. He told the deputies “that he did not want to go to jail and proceeded to cut his throat with a kitchen knife,” the affidavit says.
After the deputies took Scaffidi into custody, both Scaffidi and Tarice Scaffidi were transported to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, where they could receive treatment for their injuries, the affidavit points out.
When a deputy interviewed Charles Scaffidi, after Scaffidi was read his rights, the affidavit continues, Scaffidi reported that he and Tarice Scaffidi had gone to “several different bars where they had a few alcoholic beverages.” They then became engaged in “a verbal argument over a knocked-down table,” the affidavit says.
After they returned home, the argument went on before “Charles returned to a bar by himself,” the affidavit says, “and they continued the altercation through text messages. Charles then asked Tarice to come pick him up, and both returned once again to their residence.”
The verbal altercation “led to a physical altercation on the kitchen floor,” the affidavit explains. “Charles stated he grabbed a kitchen knife and cut Tarice’s throat.” Then, when she attempted to leave the residence, the affidavit says, “he cut her with the knife again in the back of her neck one or two times.”
Tarice Scaffidi refused to provide a statement to the deputy, the affidavit points out.