FORT SMITH (KFSM) – The Fort Smith man accused of stabbing two people at a local motel pleaded not guilty to several potential felony charges Wednesday morning, according to the Sebastian County Prosecutor’s Office.
Joseph M. Cox faces charges of parole violation, first-degree battery and second-degree domestic battery. He remains in the Sebastian County Detention Center without bond, according to the Sebastian County Sheriff’s Office.
Cox pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday morning and was assigned a public defender. His next court date has not yet been scheduled, prosecutors said.
Cox was arrested Sunday after police were called to a local hospital by two stabbing victims, who said the suspect had stabbed them at his home at Garden Lodge on 11th Street in Fort Smith.
The suspect said the two victims, a man and a woman, were at his apartment on Saturday afternoon, when they got into an argument. Removing his shirt, Cox thought the man was going to fight him, but both of them left, and Cox went to sleep, according to a probable cause affidavit.
When Cox woke up, the man and woman were in his apartment, and he once again got into an argument with the woman, according to authorities. Like before, the other man got involved, and Cox said that made him mad. The man took a couple steps toward the bed Cox had been sleeping on, and a fight started between the two, police said.
Feeling that the man was “getting the best of him,” Cox pulled out a knife and stabbed the man multiple times, the report states. The man left after realizing that he’d been stabbed. The woman once again got into an argument with Cox and left, police said. When Cox walked out after her into the parking lot, he cut her while reaching for her arm, the report states. He told police he forgot the knife was in his hand, authorities said.
Making it to the hospital, the man learned he had been stabbed three times, according the report.
None of the injuries suffered were life-threatening, although the male stabbing victim had to go through surgery and was kept in a local hospital in stable condition, officials said.
