Chester man charged in brutal fatal stabbing
CHESTER » A Chester man has been arrested in the fatal stabbing of a woman in front of her 6-year-old daughter, officials said.
Alonzo Carter, 25, has been charged in the brutal stabbing death of Devanna Cornitcher, 25, during what police initially described as a domestic incident inside her apartment in the 600 block of West Ninth Street.
According to a press released provided by Chester Police Capt. James Chubb, officers were dispatched for a report of a domestic incident about 10:30 Friday night.
When they arrived on the scene and entered the main door they encountered a female who informed the officers that they needed to go to the second floor immediately. Standing with this female was a child identified as the victim’s 6-yearold daughter. The child was screaming and crying, stating “he killed my mommy,” Chubb said.
As they made their way to the second floor, officers observed bloody footprints on the steps, as well as blood marks on the walls, and could hear a child screaming and crying. Officers gained access to the apartment and observed copious amounts of blood in the residence. Once inside, officers discovered a child sitting on a bed crying, and the body of Cornitcher lying lifeless in the kitchen area. She had suffered a stab wound.
On entering the apartment, officers immediately encountered a person of interest later identified as Carter, along with the victim’s 3-year-old son.
Both of the victims children are now staying with their grandmother, who is the victim’s mother.
Carter faces charges of criminal homicide, first-degree murder, second-degree murder, recklessly endangering another person, and possession of an instrument of a crime, Chubbb said.
Carter was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Deborah Krull and remanded to the county prison without bail. He faces a May 8 preliminary hearing in Chester District Court.
The fatal stabbing was the city’s eighth homicide, coming just hours after a fatal shooting that marked the city’s seventh homicide of 2018.