Unwelcome party guest sentenced to prison for double stabbing, burglary charges

An uninvited guest who stabbed two people at a Mankato after-bar party and burglarized a rural Blue Earth County property in the same month was sentenced to prison.

Abel Jonathan Rocha, 27, who is listed as homeless, was sentenced June 24 in Blue Earth County Court.  Judge Kurt D. Johnson sentenced Rocha to three years in the St. Cloud State Correctional Facility.  He’ll be eligible for parole in just over two years.

In October 2021, Rocha punched and stabbed a man who refused him entry into the party.  Court documents said the stab wound was about five inches deep in the victim’s chest cavity.  Court documents say a second victim was hit on the head with a pipe and stabbed in the back multiple times. Rocha pleaded guilty to one count of 2nd-degree assault in the stabbing, and two other counts of the same were dismissed.

The sentence also applies to an October 2021 burglary.  In that case, Rocha and two other men stole more than 20 guns and a bow from a rural Blue Earth County property. As part of a plea bargain, he agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of 3rd-degree felony burglary.  His other charges were dismissed.  Rocha was sentenced to 21 months for the burglary.  His two sentences will run concurrently.

More about: