Northpinellas: $75 debt results in throat slashing

TARPON SPRINGS -- A weekend confrontation over a $75 debt led to a knife attack that resulted in an aggravated battery charge against a Tarpon Springs lawn care laborer who police say slashed another man's throat.

Tarpon Springs police say 23-year-old Travis Hendrix of 529 St. Michaels Way, and a friend, 31-year-old Brian Fowler of 2609 Society Drive in Holiday, went looking for a man they knew only as Buddy who owed Hendrix $75. They found Buddy -- whom police identified as 31-year-old Richard William Montez -- at about 3 a.m. Saturday at Grosse Avenue and E Morgan Street. Hendrix asked Montez whether he had the money, and Montez said yes, according to police. Montez then got in the back seat of Hendrix's 1985 Chevrolet Caprice. After pausing for a moment, he grabbed Hendrix's head, pulled it back and cut Hendrix's neck with a large kitchen knife, police say. Police said Hendrix pushed Montez's arm away. Montez then got out of the car and began to chase Fowler, but Fowler got away safely. Hendrix initially started to follow Montez in the car, but stopped, and friends drove him to Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital. There, Hendrix told officers what happened before he had surgery to close the cut, which was more than 4 1/2 inches long and at least a third of an inch deep. Montez, whose address is 40351 U.S. 19, No. 328, according to jail records, was being held at the Pinellas County Jail Monday in lieu of $20,000 bail.

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