Emiliano Domi, 25, told investigators he'd confronted the victim in the family's Martha Avenue home because she laughed at him when he complained about her moving a jacket of his from a living-room couch, an affidavit filed in Superior Court in Hackensack alleges.
After pushing her down, Domi said, he grabbed a 6-inch kitchen knife and angrily stabbed the victim in the back between the shoulder blades, snapping the handle off, the affidavit says.
Domi "said that his intention was to kill her," it says. He then "left the home believing that she was dead."
The 43-year-old Albanian immigrant survived following surgery at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center to remove the blade.
Domi, meanwhile, went to a Garfield bakery where his father works and asked him for gas money, investigators said. The request prompted the father to call his wife -- and then police.
Garfield police captured Domi a short time later, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.
Domi, a former cashier at the ShopRite in Lodi, has a history of domestic violence, sources with direct knowledge of the incident said. Indeed, the affidavit filed by investigators quoted both parents saying he'd threatened to kill them multiple times.
Domi was transferred to Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, where he remained in custody on Tuesday, since being processed at the Bergen County Jail last week on charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons offenses.
Detectives with the Bergen County Prosecutor's Major Crimes Unit are handling the case, Musella said. They've been assisted by, among others, Elmwood Park police and the Bergen County Sheriff's Bureau of Criminal Identification, which collected evidence.
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