Sep. 23—TRAVERSE CITY — A suspect in the stabbing of two people last Sunday pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Foster Mudget, 32, was arraigned before Judge Michael Stepka on Friday afternoon in 86th District Court in Grand Traverse County.
Mudget is from Oceana County, but said he’d been living in Traverse City although he does not have an address. Assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder, a felony that carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, a $5,000 fine, or both, is the charge he’s facing.
Police say he stabbed a 38-year-old Charlevoix man in the right forearm near the Coin Slot on Front Street. They had been arguing over a cellphone at the time, Traverse City Police Department Lt. Adam Gray said.
The Charlevoix man ended up suffering “severe lacerations,” was transported to Munson Medical Center by ambulance and later released, according to the police report.
Mudget had left the scene of that incident by the time police arrived and they were unable to find him after a search with a police dog, Gray said.
While police were investigating the first stabbing, the Charlevoix man’s friend, a 30-year-old Traverse City man on his way back from Munson, confronted Mudget on the Men’s Trail at the Village of Grand Traverse Commons.
The man punched Mudget multiple times before Mudget stabbed him in the chest area, according to Gray.
Mudget left that scene as well, police said. But he turned himself in on Tuesday afternoon, according to the court probation department. He was arrested and taken to Grand Traverse County Jail.
His court-appointed attorney for the arraignment, Paul Jarboe, waived the formal reading of the charges and did not request a personal recognizance bond on his behalf, citing his current probationary status.
Mudget is serving two years of probation, to January 2025, for two counts of assaulting a police officer in Oceana County.
According to the Michigan Department of Corrections, Mudget had been in prison from April 2015 to April 2022 on two consecutive sentences for delivering drugs and embezzlement convictions.
Because of Mudget’s history, Stepka set a $100,000 cash/surety bond. His next scheduled court date will be at 2 p.m. Oct. 6.