Published Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Victim in stabbing treated for injuries, released

By Elizabeth Melville

The Newnan Times-Herald

A man stabbed over the weekend during a get-together at the South Oaks Mobile Home Park in Palmetto has since been treated and released for his injuries.

His alleged attacker, identified by the authorities as an illegal immigrant, is in police custody.

Leonel Padilla, 19, of Palmetto, was stabbed Saturday night shortly after 11 p.m. at 11 Polly Drive in the mobile home park off Interstate 85 and Collinsworth Road, according to Capt. Tony Grant of the Coweta County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies with the sheriff's office arrived at 11:24 p.m. and found Padilla lying in the street with a stab wound to his back, left thorax region -- or his lung, according to Grant.

Officers arrested 30-year-old Juan Carlos Garsia-Morales, of 79 Dave Drive in the mobile home park. He is charged with one count of aggravated assault, according to the captain.

Police have deduced from witnesses that Padilla and Garsia-Morales had both attended a get-together in the mobile home park where alcohol was being consumed. An argument ensued that resulted in Padilla being stabbed once by Garsia-Morales, according to authorities.

Padilla was taken to Atlanta Medical Center where he has since been treated and released.