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SALT LAKE CITY — A man has been charged with stabbing two people within a week in Salt Lake City.
Mario Lynn Fresques, 32, of Salt Lake City, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with aggravated assault resulting in serious injury, a second-degree felony, and possession of a weapon by a restricted person, a third-degree felony, for an incident on Sept. 17. He was charged with those same crimes on Tuesday in a separate case for a similar incident that police say happened six days earlier.
On Sept. 11, Fresques is accused of stabbing a 38-year-old woman near 550 W. 300 South. The woman suffered a stab wound to her upper right chest area just below her armpit, charging documents state. She was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.
Fresques was arrested Saturday after allegedly stabbing a 39-year-old man multiple times in the same area where the first stabbing occurred. That victim sustained "one stab wound to the neck, three stab wounds to the abdomen, and a stab wound to each arm," according to charging documents filed Wednesday.
Officers responded to the area quickly on Saturday and were able track down Fresques. Once he was in custody, he "stated something to the effect of, 'This shouldn't be long because you don't have the evidence and only have eyewitnesses. 'Cause I didn't stab anyone,'" the charges state.
Salt Lake police said the attacks appeared to be random and targeted the homeless community.
Prosecutors have requested that Fresques be held in the Salt Lake County Jail without bail pending trial, noting that he was already on probation at the time of the stabbings.
In April, Fresques was convicted of theft by receiving stolen property after police found him in a stolen car. He was sentenced to three years of probation. He was also found guilty of the same crime in a similar case in 2019 and was convicted of failing to stop at the command of police in 2021, court records state.
"Based on the defendant's history of fleeing from police and resisting arrest, the state believes that he is likely to flee the court's jurisdiction if released on bail," prosecutors said in court documents requesting that he be held without bail.
