SKOWHEGAN — Bail has been set at $50,000 cash on a Rhode Island man charged in the New Year’s Day stabbing of another man in Skowhegan.

Christopher Monroe, 32, most recently of Waterville, made his initial appearance Jan. 18 in a Skowhegan courtroom, where a judge told him what his rights are. Monroe did not enter a plea.

He is scheduled to appear for a dispositional conference April 17.

Monroe waived extradition from Rhode Island and was returned to Maine on Jan. 17 to face a class A felony charge of elevated aggravated assault.

Detective Michael Bachelder and Officer Amber Damon traveled to Rhode Island to bring him back to Maine, Skowhegan police Chief David Bucknam said last week.

The stabbing victim, Christopher Hongo, 29, of Norridgewock, was treated for his wounds and released by Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan. He had been stabbed in the shoulder, side and “multiple times in the abdomen,” according to a court document.

Bachelder wrote in an affidavit for Monroe’s arrest that Deputy Chief Brian Gardiner was on duty New Year’s Eve, working as the town’s hospital resource officer, when about 1:36 a.m. Gardiner requested an additional officer because a stabbing victim had been brought in.

Sgt. Herbert Oliver responded and sent Officer Damon to an Alder Street address where the fracas was reported to have taken place.

Detective Bachelder wrote in the affidavit that a man who lives at the Alder Street address told investigators that he and Hongo had gone to Bloomfield’s Tavern in downtown Skowhegan for a final drink with friends. When they returned home, Christopher Monroe came to the house.

The resident of the house “had a bad feeling about Monroe,” the detective says in the affidavit. Monroe asked Hongo to go outside with him to talk, and the resident of the house followed “to make sure everything was okay.”

Suddenly a woman who Bachelder said had come to the house with Monroe hit the house resident on the back of the head. The resident said Hongo yelled “he’s got a knife,” and Monroe “took a knife out and started swinging it around.”

Monroe stabbed Hongo around the shoulder, as the resident of the house pushed Monroe to the ground, Bachelder wrote. As the men fought, the woman hit the house resident a second time on the back of the head as Monroe got up and started swinging the knife “around like crazy.”

Hongo grabbed the knife and cut his hand, according to the affidavit. The knife was described as a 3-inch stainless steel flip knife with a black handle. Monroe was seen last leaving the Alder Street home with a woman in a red Chrysler Town & Country van.

Police interviewed witnesses who pointed Monroe out from a photo on Facebook.

Bachelder wrote that he received a tip that Monroe was at a home on Butler Court in Waterville. He was not there when police arrived.

Bucknam said detectives from the Newport, Rhode Island, Police Department arrested Christopher Monroe on Jan. 7 in that state.

A tentative trial date has been set for Aug. 5. If he posts bail, Monroe is ordered not to leave Maine and not to have contact with any of the people involved in the stabbing incident.

Class A crimes are punishable by up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter:@Doug_Harlow

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