Burgara faces attacker

The victim in an Oct. 30 stabbing faced his accused attacker during a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Carson City Justice court.

Carlos Rios-Burgara testified that during a fight over approximately $50, defendant John Sanford Burke, 33, "took me out (of his house), grabbed my neck and then he hit me." He added that he didn't remember a knife being involved.

Defense attorney Allison Joffee tried to establish that the money in question was really a drug debt between Burke and Rios-Burgara.

Rios-Burgara, who has a pending drug trafficking case, exercised his right not to answer several times when Joffee asked him questions related to drug dealing.

She also questioned him about a flashlight that he said he carried to Burke's residence prior to the fight. When asked several times whether he had hit Burke with the flashlight, Rios-Burgara answered that he didn't.

Capt. Robert Schreihans of the Carson City Fire Department testified that when he arrived at the scene of the fight on Clear Creek Avenue, he tended to a large hole in Rios-Burgara's chest.

He said the wound necessitated a chest tube to aide Rios-Burgara's breathing. He was listed in serious condition that night after being admitted to Washoe Medical Center and was released two days later.

Upon completion of the preliminary hearing Burke's case was sent to district court where he will face felony charges of attempted murder.