Father admits to stabbing

An 85-year-old man confesses to attacking his daughter as she slept, according to police records.

SPRING HILL - Both hands clutching her chest, blood seeping through her fingers, Maria Molina staggered toward her husband, Efrain.

Her father had tried to kill her with a 13-inch knife, she said. And now Jaime Rivera-Tosado, 85, had a smaller knife and wanted to kill himself, the Hernando County Sheriff's Office report said.

Shortly afterward, Molina was rushed to Oak Hill Hospital in Spring Hill, where she was treated for a half-inch to 1-inch laceration to her breastbone. Her injury is not considered life threatening, the report said.

"Fortunately, the knife did not penetrate any deeper," said sheriff's spokesman Lt. Joseph Paez.

Rivera-Tosado was arrested and charged with attempted first-degree murder. He was being held at Hernando County Jail without bail.

The incident began about 8 a.m. Monday when Molina was awakened by her father striking her in the chest saying he wanted to kill her, the sheriff's report said.

Molina, 64, began to struggle with her father and eventually grabbed the knife from his hands. When she asked him why he attacked her, Rivera-Tosado reportedly said, "The devil is in me. The devil made me do it."

Molina later struggled to her feet, got the knife and left the bedroom bleeding.

Paez said that prior to Monday's incident, sheriff's deputies had not been called to the single-family house at 5428 Deltona Boulevard.

Paez was unable to comment on Rivera-Tosado's mental history.

During the investigation, Rivera-Tosado, through a Spanish interpreter, gave detectives a detailed account of what he said happened.

Rivera-Tosado said he had awoken about 5:30 a.m. Monday feeling as if his head were swollen. He took a bath and then picked up a picture of Molina's mother, whom he never married.

After using scissors to cut the picture into tiny pieces, he walked to the front door and shredded the American flag that hung outside, the report said.

By that time, Efrain Molina had been sitting in the living room. After speaking with his son-in-law, Rivera-Tosado went to the kitchen, where he grabbed the brown-handled blade from the knife-block, the report said.

According to the report, he then entered the bedroom carrying the weapon under a brown dish towel and, as his daughter slept, placed the towel over her chest and stabbed her.

- Duane Bourne can be reached at 754-6114. Send e-mail to dbourne@sptimes.com

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