Westville man critical after stabbing

MALONE — A Middletown man who was visiting Malone is in Franklin County Jail, accused of stabbing another man outside a nightclub early Sunday.

Eugene Burdash, 38, is charged with second-degree assault and is being held in lieu of $25,000 cash bail or $50,000 insurance bond.

Benjamin St. Ann, 28, of Westville remained in critical condition Monday at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington with multiple stab wounds to his torso, said Malone Village Police Chief Stephen Stone.

Exploratory surgery was performed on him Sunday to determine the extent of his internal injuries, the chief said.

Stone was unsure of the exact number of stab wounds St. Ann suffered, but it could be as many as eight.

The “sharp-edged instrument” used in the attack had not been recovered as of Monday, the chief said.

He said the department received a frantic cell-phone call at 1:23 a.m. that there had been a multiple stabbing in the parking lot at the Nightlife Night Club, adjacent to the Villa Fiore Restaurant on Main Street.

When Village Police and State Police arrived and found St. Ann bleeding, he was quickly taken to Alice Hyde Medical Center.

As officers tried to learn what happened, some of the crowd from the bar who were either friends of one of the men involved or curious onlookers began shoving each other and getting rowdy, Stone said.

“We called in the Border Patrol to help because there were several incidents of disorderly conduct. With the help of the owners, we closed the nightclub to get everybody out.”

Because the parking lot had become a crime scene, some bar patrons had to find alternate transportation home because their vehicles were inaccessible.

“As far as we can tell, they didn’t know each other,” Stone said. “Eugene hadn’t been living here for 10 years.

“It started when they had words between them at the bar. They were separated at different times and reconnected in the parking lot.

“It was not over a girl, and they had no past problems,” he said. “Alcohol appears to be a factor because they were in a bar, but the investigation is continuing.”



E-mail Denise A. Raymo at:

draymo@pressrepublican.com