A Durango man suspected of attempted murder for slashing another man’s face is being held without bail after turning himself in Monday night.
Sean C. Giovanni, 29, made his first court appearance Tuesday to be advised of pending charges and for a bail hearing.
Prosecutors asked that bail be set at $500,000, but La Plata County Judge Dondi Osborne set bail at $100,000 surety, meaning he can post bail through a bondsman. But Giovanni is also being held on a possible probation violation, meaning he can’t post bail until his parole hold is lifted.
Giovanni is suspected of inflicting an 8-inch cut to a man’s face, just above the neck, said Cmdr. Ray Shupe, spokesman with the Durango Police Department, in a previous interview.
The victim was identified as Deion Hudson, 24, of Ignacio.
According to an arrest affidavit, Hudson was at Colorado Pongas, a Durango bar and pool hall, about 1 a.m. Sept. 30 when he left with his girlfriend in a Dodge pickup. He drove only 100 feet before pulling over in the First National Bank parking lot with a flat tire.
Hudson got out of the vehicle and realized his tire had been slashed.
He was then “sucker punched” by an unknown person. Hudson turned around to defend himself and recognized Giovanni. They exchanged several more punches, until Giovanni used an orange box cutter to slash at Hudson’s face, according to police and the arrest affidavit.
The slice to Hudson’s face was about 5 inches above the throat, cutting his left cheek.
Giovanni fled the scene, yelling something to the effect of, “That’s what you get for raping my girlfriend,” Shupe said.
Hudson and his girlfriend got back into the pickup and sped away for safety. They pulled over at Santa Rita Park to meet law enforcement.
Police were unable to locate Giovanni until he turned himself in Monday night. He goes by several aliases, including Sean Ludwigsen, Tru Giovanni, Tru da Vinci.
Police said they are unaware of a sexual assault occurring between Hudson and Giovanni’s girlfriend.
However, Hudson told police he hit Giovanni’s girlfriend several times in the face about a week earlier while walking through Schneider Park. More specifically, he said the woman was “running her mouth,” and he told her to stop and eventually hit her, according to the arrest affidavit.
The woman started crying, and a police officer who happened to be driving by stopped to investigate. Hudson said he became scared, so he ran into the Animas River in the 900 block of Camino del Rio, near Conoco. Police caught him and arrested him on suspicion of assaulting a woman and running from police.
Charges are pending in that case.
shane@durangoherald.com
