Judge rejects man's guilty pleas, but keeps high bail

Lashante Daniel Word (Rochester Police photo)

ROCHESTER - The Gonic man accused in what is characterized as a random stabbing attack on a sleeping man said at his Friday arraignment he wished to plead guilty to all the charges associated with the case.

However, a judge cautioned him a lot of jail time was possible and entered “not guilty” pleas on all charges pending his mental evaluation, a probable cause hearing and the assigning of a public defender.

Lashante Daniel Word, 20, who police listed as transient in an early press release but whose arrest affidavit indicates he resides at 34 Punch Brook Way 325, Gonic, stands accused of felony assault and criminal threatening as well as several misdemeanors, most of them for allegedly scuffling with officers, threatening and spitting at them as they cuffed him on Winter Street and later for spitting at booking room windows inside the station.

Word is also accused of tossing a glass of water officers had given him to drink on the booking room table near a computer area.

In stark contrast, a subdued, seemingly earnest and composed Word calmly asked Judge Susan Ashley to enter guilty pleas on all counts during his videotaped arraignment in Rochester District Court. He said he didn’t want a lawyer. District Court has no authority to enter pleas on felony cases, only misdemeanors.

In response to a question from Ashley asking about the defendant’s mental health, Prosecutor Tim Sullivan said Word’s mother had said he had been having issues. It later came to light she had found a note with suicidal thoughts inside his wallet.

Word’s bail was set at $100,000 cash pending an April hearing on whether the case should be bound over to superior court.  

A staffperson at Strafford County House of Corrections said today Word was on a “medical” meaning he is being treated as a medical detainee, though he didn’t know if he was specifically on a “suicide watch.”

The bizarre incident began when police got a call around 2 a.m. on Friday from a 19-year-old male who lives on First Street who told police he awoke to find Word stabbing him as he lay in bed. The victim, who said he only knew the attacker as a high school classmate, was able to fend off some of the attack but sustained cuts and puncture wounds to the neck, arms, torso and legs.

The victim was still in the hospital and had undergone or was undergoing surgery at the time of the arraignment, Sullivan said, though his injuries were not thought to be life threatening. The victim was no longer at the hospital this morning.

According to an arrest affidavit, the victim finally got Word to stop stabbing him by offering his attacker about a half-ounce of marijuana.

Upon Word’s arrest, police found a baggie with what is thought to be marijuana on him.

Rochester Police Capt. Paul Toussaint said on Friday the victim in the case has not been totally cooperative with police. According to a police affidavit, the victim told police he had had no prior problems with Word.

The affidavit said before he fled, Word threatened the victim’s life if he told anyone about the attack.

Police responded to the victim’s early morning call and found blood all over the apartment and the victim. A K9 unit was brought in but was unable to track Word.

Police then went to Word’s mother’s home in another part of town and knocked on her door for an hour before she opened the door and stated that her son was not there. She refused to let officers in to search for him.

Officers left, but around 6:15 a.m. Word’s mother called police to say her son was there and “acting out of control,” the affidavit said.

When officers arrived she told them her son had shoved her to the floor and then left the house.

Police located him nearby, but when they told him to stop, he continued walking. When officers caught up with him and tried to put him in handcuffs, he fought with them and tried to spit in an officer’s face, the affidavit said. He then shoved two officers and threatened he was going to find their families and kill them, according to the affidavit.

Once he was handcuffed and searched, officers found the baggie of marijuana and a three-inch-blade pocket knife with water spots inside the bladed area and a reddish mark consistent with blood on the right side of his sweatshirt, the affidavit states.

At the booking table, Word spit numerous times on the windows, drawing several more misdemeanor charges.